PARLIAMENT OF VICTORIA

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD)

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY

FIFTY-NINTH PARLIAMENT FIRST SESSION

THURSDAY, 20 JUNE 2019

Internet: www.parliament.vic.gov.au/downloadhansard

By authority of the Victorian Government Printer

The Governor The Honourable LINDA DESSAU, AC The Lieutenant-Governor The Honourable KEN LAY, AO, APM

The ministry

Premier ...... The Hon. DM Andrews, MP

Deputy Premier and Minister for Education ...... The Hon. JA Merlino, MP

Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Industrial Relations ...... The Hon. TH Pallas, MP

Minister for Transport Infrastructure ...... The Hon. JM Allan, MP

Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice and Minister for Victim Support ...... The Hon. BA Carroll, MP

Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, and Minister for Solar Homes ...... The Hon. L D’Ambrosio, MP

Minister for Child Protection and Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers ...... The Hon. LA Donnellan, MP

Minister for Mental Health, Minister for Equality and Minister for Creative Industries ...... The Hon. MP Foley, MP

Attorney-General and Minister for Workplace Safety ...... The Hon. J Hennessy, MP

Minister for Public Transport and Minister for Ports and Freight ...... The Hon. MM Horne, MP

Special Minister of State, Minister for Priority Precincts and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs ...... The Hon. GW Jennings, MLC

Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, and Minister for Suburban Development ...... The Hon. M Kairouz, MP

Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services ...... The Hon. J Mikakos, MLC

Minister for Water and Minister for Police and Emergency Services .... The Hon. LM Neville, MP

Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, and Minister for Racing ...... The Hon. MP Pakula, MP

Minister for Roads, Minister for Road Safety and the TAC, and Minister for Fishing and Boating ...... The Hon. JL Pulford, MLC

Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Veterans ...... The Hon. RD Scott, MP

Minister for Local Government and Minister for Small Business The Hon. A Somyurek, MLC

Minister for Regional Development, Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Resources The Hon. J Symes, MLC

Minister for Training and Skills, and Minister for Higher Education .... The Hon. GA Tierney, MLC

Minister for Prevention of Family Violence, Minister for Women and Minister for Youth The Hon. G Williams, MP

Minister for Planning, Minister for Housing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs ...... The Hon. RW Wynne, MP

Cabinet Secretary ...... Ms M Thomas, MP OFFICE-HOLDERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FIFTY-NINTH PARLIAMENT—FIRST SESSION

Speaker The Hon. CW BROOKS Deputy Speaker Ms JM EDWARDS

Acting Speakers Ms Blandthorn, Mr J Bull, Mr Carbines, Ms Couzens, Mr Dimopoulos, Mr Edbrooke, Ms Kilkenny, Mr McGuire, Mr Richardson, Ms Spence, Ms Suleyman and Ms Ward

Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party and Premier The Hon. DM ANDREWS

Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Labor Party and Deputy Premier The Hon. JA MERLINO

Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party and Leader of the Opposition The Hon. MA O’BRIEN

Deputy Leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party The Hon. LG McLEISH

Leader of The Nationals and Deputy Leader of the Opposition The Hon. PL WALSH Deputy Leader of The Nationals Ms SM RYAN

Leader of the House Ms JM ALLAN

Manager of Opposition Business Mr KA WELLS

Heads of parliamentary departments Assembly: Clerk of the Legislative Assembly: Ms B Noonan Council: Clerk of the Parliaments and Clerk of the Legislative Council: Mr A Young Parliamentary Services: Secretary: Mr P Lochert MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY FIFTY-NINTH PARLIAMENT—FIRST SESSION

Member District Party Member District Party Addison, Ms Juliana Wendouree ALP Maas, Mr Gary Narre Warren South ALP Allan, Ms Jacinta Marie Bendigo East ALP McCurdy, Mr Timothy Logan Ovens Valley Nats Andrews, Mr Daniel Michael Mulgrave ALP McGhie, Mr Stephen John Melton ALP Angus, Mr Neil Andrew Warwick Forest Hill LP McGuire, Mr Frank Broadmeadows ALP Battin, Mr Bradley William Gembrook LP McLeish, Ms Lucinda Gaye Eildon LP Blackwood, Mr Gary John Narracan LP Merlino, Mr James Anthony Monbulk ALP Blandthorn, Ms Elizabeth Anne Pascoe Vale ALP Morris, Mr David Charles Mornington LP Brayne, Mr Chris Nepean ALP Neville, Ms Lisa Mary Bellarine ALP Britnell, Ms Roma South-West Coast LP Newbury, Mr James Brighton LP Brooks, Mr Colin William Bundoora ALP Northe, Mr Russell John Morwell Ind Bull, Mr Joshua Michael Sunbury ALP O’Brien, Mr Daniel David Gippsland South Nats Bull, Mr Timothy Owen Gippsland East Nats O’Brien, Mr Michael Anthony Malvern LP Burgess, Mr Neale Ronald Hastings LP Pakula, Mr Martin Philip Keysborough ALP Carbines, Mr Anthony Richard Ivanhoe ALP Pallas, Mr Timothy Hugh Werribee ALP Carroll, Mr Benjamin Alan Niddrie ALP Pearson, Mr Daniel James Essendon ALP Cheeseman, Mr Darren Leicester South Barwon ALP Read, Dr Tim Brunswick Greens Connolly, Ms Sarah Tarneit ALP Richards, Ms Pauline Cranbourne ALP Couzens, Ms Christine Anne Geelong ALP Richardson, Mr Timothy Noel Mordialloc ALP Crugnale, Ms Jordan Alessandra Bass ALP Riordan, Mr Richard Vincent Polwarth LP Cupper, Ms Ali Mildura Ind Rowswell, Mr Brad Sandringham LP D’Ambrosio, Ms Liliana Mill Park ALP Ryan, Stephanie Maureen Euroa Nats Dimopoulos, Mr Stephen Oakleigh ALP Sandell, Ms Ellen Melbourne Greens Donnellan, Mr Luke Anthony Narre Warren North ALP Scott, Mr Robin David Preston ALP Edbrooke, Mr Paul Andrew Frankston ALP Settle, Ms Michaela Buninyong ALP Edwards, Ms Janice Maree Bendigo West ALP Sheed, Ms Suzanna Shepparton Ind Eren, Mr John Hamdi Lara ALP Smith, Mr Ryan Warrandyte LP Foley, Mr Martin Peter Albert Park ALP Smith, Mr Timothy Colin Kew LP Fowles, Mr Will Burwood ALP Southwick, Mr David James Caulfield LP Fregon, Mr Matt Mount Waverley ALP Spence, Ms Rosalind Louise Yuroke ALP Green, Ms Danielle Louise Yan Yean ALP Staikos, Mr Nicholas Bentleigh ALP Guy, Mr Matthew Jason Bulleen LP Staley, Ms Louise Eileen Ripon LP Halfpenny, Ms Bronwyn Thomastown ALP Suleyman, Ms Natalie St Albans ALP Hall, Ms Katie Footscray ALP Tak, Mr Meng Heang Clarinda ALP Halse, Mr Dustin Ringwood ALP Taylor, Mr Jackson Bayswater ALP Hamer, Mr Paul Box Hill ALP Theophanous, Ms Katerina Northcote ALP Hennessy, Ms Jill Altona ALP Thomas, Ms Mary-Anne Macedon ALP Hibbins, Mr Samuel Peter Prahran Greens Tilley, Mr William John Benambra LP Hodgett, Mr David John Croydon LP Vallence, Ms Bridget Evelyn LP Horne, Ms Melissa Margaret Williamstown ALP Wakeling, Mr Nicholas Ferntree Gully LP Hutchins, Ms Natalie Maree Sykes Sydenham ALP Walsh, Mr Peter Lindsay Murray Plains Nats Kairouz, Ms Marlene Kororoit ALP Ward, Ms Vicki Eltham ALP Kealy, Ms Emma Jayne Lowan Nats Wells, Mr Kimberley Arthur Rowville LP Kennedy, Mr John Ormond Hawthorn ALP Williams, Ms Gabrielle Dandenong ALP Kilkenny, Ms Sonya Carrum ALP Wynne, Mr Richard William Richmond ALP

PARTY ABBREVIATIONS ALP—Labor Party; Greens—The Greens; Ind—Independent; LP—Liberal Party; Nats—The Nationals. Legislative Assembly committees

Economy and Infrastructure Standing Committee Ms Addison, Mr Blackwood, Ms Connolly, Mr Eren, Mr Rowswell, Ms Ryan and Ms Theophanous.

Environment and Planning Standing Committee Mr Cheeseman, Mr Fowles, Ms Green, Mr Hamer, Mr McCurdy, Mr Morris and Mr T Smith.

Legal and Social Issues Standing Committee Ms Couzens, Ms Kealy, Mr Newbury, Ms Settle, Mr Southwick, Ms Suleyman and Mr Tak.

Privileges Committee Ms Allan, Mr Guy, Ms Hennessy, Mr McGuire, Mr Morris, Ms Neville, Mr Pakula, Ms Ryan and Mr Wells.

Standing Orders Committee The Speaker, Ms Allan, Ms Edwards, Ms Halfpenny, Ms McLeish, Ms Sheed, Mr Staikos, Ms Staley and Mr Walsh.

Joint committees

Dispute Resolution Committee Assembly: Ms Allan, Ms Hennessy, Mr Merlino, Mr Pakula, Mr R Smith, Mr Walsh and Mr Wells. Council: Mr Bourman, Mr Davis, Mr Jennings, Ms Symes and Ms Wooldridge.

Electoral Matters Committee Assembly: Ms Blandthorn, Ms Hall, Dr Read and Ms Spence. Council: Mr Atkinson, Mrs McArthur, Mr Meddick, Mr Melhem, Ms Lovell and Mr Quilty.

House Committee Assembly: The Speaker (ex officio), Mr T Bull, Ms Crugnale, Ms Edwards, Mr Fregon, Ms Sandell and Ms Staley. Council: The President (ex officio), Mr Bourman, Mr Davis, Ms Lovell, Ms Pulford and Ms Stitt.

Integrity and Oversight Committee Assembly: Mr Halse, Mr McGhie, Mr Rowswell, Mr Taylor and Mr Wells. Council: Mr Grimley and Ms Shing.

Public Accounts and Estimates Committee Assembly: Ms Blandthorn, Mr Hibbins, Mr Maas, Mr D O’Brien, Ms Richards, Mr Richardson, Mr Riordan and Ms Vallence. Council: Ms Stitt.

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee Assembly: Mr Burgess, Ms Connolly and Ms Kilkenny. Council: Mr Gepp, Mrs McArthur, Ms Patten and Ms Taylor. CONTENTS

DOCUMENTS Documents ...... 2369 BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Adjournment ...... 2369 MEMBERS STATEMENTS Tom Steele ...... 2369 Queen’s Birthday honours ...... 2369 Warringa Park School ...... 2370 Euroa electorate mental health services...... 2370 Women’s leadership ...... 2370 Albury Wodonga Health ...... 2371 Men’s health ...... 2371 South-West Coast electorate...... 2372 Wellsprings for Women ...... 2372 Queen’s Birthday honours ...... 2372 Dolphin Gymnastics Club ...... 2373 Savant Thakur ...... 2373 Gippsland East electorate schools ...... 2373 Environment effects statements audit ...... 2373 Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation ...... 2374 McRae Wood, OAM ...... 2374 Wayne Casey ...... 2374 Derek Amos and Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Gye ...... 2374 Glenallen School ...... 2374 Spectrum Journeys ...... 2375 Footscray City College...... 2375 Asylum Seeker Resource Centre ...... 2375 Footscray small business ...... 2376 3ZZZ ...... 2376 Her Majesty’s Theatre, Ballarat ...... 2376 Michele Phillips, OAM ...... 2376 Australian Woodturning Exhibition ...... 2377 National Reconciliation Week ...... 2377 Michael Carter ...... 2377 Pat Cronin Foundation ...... 2377 Member for Sunbury ...... 2377 BILLS Local Government (South Gippsland Shire Council) Bill 2019 ...... 2378 Council’s agreement ...... 2378 Environment Protection Amendment Bill 2019 ...... 2378 Statement of compatibility ...... 2378 Second reading ...... 2380 MOTIONS Budget papers 2019–20 ...... 2383 QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS Labor Party members ...... 2393 Ministers statements: Suburban Rail Loop ...... 2394 Youth justice centre staff ...... 2394 Ministers statements: portable long service benefits scheme ...... 2398 Gold royalty ...... 2398 Ministers statements: renewable energy...... 2399 Net debt...... 2400 Ministers statements: rental reforms ...... 2401 Port container tax ...... 2402 Ministers statements: school funding ...... 2402 CONSTITUENCY QUESTIONS Eildon electorate ...... 2403 Carrum electorate ...... 2403 Lowan electorate ...... 2403 Bass electorate ...... 2404 Warrandyte electorate ...... 2404 Bayswater electorate ...... 2404 Brunswick electorate ...... 2404 Northcote electorate ...... 2405 Gembrook electorate ...... 2405 Box Hill electorate ...... 2405 MOTIONS Budget papers 2019–20 ...... 2406 BILLS Assisted Reproductive Treatment Amendment (Consent) Bill 2019 ...... 2455 Second reading ...... 2455 Third reading ...... 2455 Superannuation Legislation Amendment Bill 2019 ...... 2455 Second reading ...... 2455 Third reading ...... 2455 Public Holidays Amendment Bill 2019 ...... 2455 Second reading ...... 2455 Third reading ...... 2456 Owner Drivers and Forestry Contractors Amendment Bill 2019 ...... 2456 Second reading ...... 2456 Third reading ...... 2456 ADJOURNMENT Kilmore bypass ...... 2456 Maroondah Hospital ...... 2457 Staff entitlements ...... 2457 Coburg High School ...... 2458 Student conveyance allowance ...... 2458 Bass Coast electorate coastal erosion ...... 2459 Prahran electorate public housing ...... 2459 Robert Booth Reserve, Hampton Park ...... 2460 Highett public land ...... 2460 Box Hill transport interchange ...... 2461 Responses ...... 2461 DOCUMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2369

Thursday, 20 June 2019

The SPEAKER (Hon. Colin Brooks) took the chair at 9.32 a.m. and read the prayer. Documents DOCUMENTS Tabled by Clerk: Auditor-General: Managing Private Medical Practice in Public Hospitals—Ordered to be published School Compliance with Victoria’s Child Safe Standards—Ordered to be published Multicultural Victoria Act 2011—Victorian Government Report in Multicultural Affairs 2017–18 Planning and Environment Act 1987—Notice of approval of amendments to the following planning schemes: Banyule—GC140 Manningham—GC140 Subordinate Legislation Act 1994: Documents under s 15 in relation to Statutory Rules 31, 46 Documents under s 16B in relation to the Gambling Regulation Act 2003—Ministerial direction under s 4.8A.2 West Gate Tunnel (Truck Bans and Traffic Management) Act 2019—West Gate Tunnel Project Agreement. Business of the house ADJOURNMENT Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure) (09:34): I move:

That the house, at its rising, adjourns until Tuesday, 13 August 2019. Motion agreed to. Members statements TOM STEELE Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (09:35): I have been to many an Anzac service across the Yarra Valley where the bugle has been played by Tom Steele of Dixons Creek. I was delighted to see that Tom Steele has been given the Anzac of the Year Award for his extensive community work, which includes bugle playing for so many services. Tom was a member of Victoria Police for 38 years, rising to the rank of senior sergeant. He served in the Citizens Militia Force and volunteered with the Dixons Creek CFA. He has been a football umpire, plays cricket and is in the police band. Tom is a fabulous contributor to the local community, and I congratulate him on that award. QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS Ms McLEISH: I also want to recognise a number of people who received Queen’s Birthday honours. Aunty Dot Peters of Healesville was made a Member of the Order of Australia. Aunty Dot will be well known to people in this chamber. She has been a strong advocate for reconciliation, and in particular for the recognition of the Black Anzacs. Aunty Dot has got wonderful eel-trapping and basket skills, and I am sure that Andrew and his children will be mightily proud of their mother. Leanne Klammer of Kinglake received an Emergency Services Medal. She has been a unit controller of the SES at Kinglake for 17 years, which she joined as a volunteer in 1994—a wonderful contribution. MEMBERS STATEMENTS 2370 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Marg Attley from Tolmie, a councillor for Mansfield for many years, received an OAM as well. The community there will be thrilled for Marg. Her father, Sir Vernon Christie, was a former Speaker of this place. WARRINGA PARK SCHOOL Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (09:36): I rise to update the house on my recent visit to Warringa Park School in Werribee to celebrate the Andrews government’s $12.4 million investment to complete the first stage of the school’s Cayleys Road campus upgrade. Our investment, part of $3.8 billion invested since 2014 to build and upgrade over 1300 Victorian schools, will transform the tired old classrooms and facilities by upgrading the school’s administration building and constructing new classrooms and a multipurpose room. Thank you to Warringa Park principal Marie Hayes, teachers, students and parents who joined me to celebrate the government’s investment in this wonderful school. I was delighted to enjoy a coffee from the student-run Café 11. It was so good it would be the envy of Fitzroy. This cafe is just one of the innovative programs at Warringa Park designed to teach students real-world skills within a nurturing school environment. Thank you to the wonderful staff and students for welcoming me back to Warringa Park School. The future for them is bright, as it is for education right throughout our state, given the Andrews Labor government’s continuing effort to invest and grow our skill base and our learning communities. EUROA ELECTORATE MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES Ms RYAN (Euroa) (09:38): Communities across the Euroa electorate are in the grip of a mental health crisis, and we are seeking urgent action from the government. I note that the Auditor-General has tabled two scathing assessments of the state’s efforts in mental health in recent months. Those reports show not only that Victoria has the lowest funding for mental health per person of any state in Australia, but Victorian children as young as 13 are being treated in adult mental health facilities because the system is inadequately resourced and managed. Across my region there is a chronic shortage of mental health workers, and people are simply not getting the treatment that they need. Within the past two weeks I have heard of a young woman struggling with a mental illness episode who presented at an emergency department, only to be released with a valium script and encouragement to meditate. A family seeking assistance for a child with anorexia have discovered they cannot access treatment in our local area because our region simply does not have the treatment services of other areas. A lady in Kilmore who has contacted me cannot access services locally but rather is required to travel an hour and half to Shepparton. Yet another local man has been triaged in Shepparton after becoming suicidal, only to be released into his mother’s care a few days later. She was not given any advice, any assistance and any follow-up on how to help her son. While we do have wonderful mental health professionals like Ivan Lister, a rural outreach worker, the government has refused point blank to fund his role, arguing it is the job of local government. WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP Ms HORNE (Williamstown—Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Public Transport) (09:39): I rise today to recognise the strong female leaders in my community of Melbourne’s west. Today I will have the pleasure of meeting Abby Zappa, Antoinetta Gentile, Ella Watt, Erin Lucas and Harriet Stewart from Williamstown High School and Anna van Rooden, Harmony Swan, Jordan Dixon, Lizzi Henwood, Renee Prideaux and Tiana Patros from Bayside P–12 College. These girls are attending Parliament this week to share with me their visions about the future of our state, their concerns for the present and issues that they are passionate about. It will be wonderful to hear from such conscientious and bright young women. These voices are the future of our state and our country.

MEMBERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2371

I am so proud to be part of a government that supports women’s leadership and empowerment, one that has committed $17 000 for a mentor program to support women in local government, one that has committed $100 000 to encourage women’s participation in a long-time male-dominated music industry, one that has seen the number of women’s football teams more than triple in number in three years and one that has seen a 14 per cent increase in the number of women undertaking free TAFE apprenticeship courses. That is how empowerment happens, because we are a government nurturing our female leaders of the future. ALBURY WODONGA HEALTH Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (09:41): I rise this morning to applaud bipartisan politics. Last Friday federal and state politicians along with council representatives from Albury and Wodonga joined with senior health officials from both states and the border medical fraternity, including mental health, to agree on a way forward for the only cross-border health service in this nation. Albury Wodonga Health was formed 10 years ago, and while Wodonga alone has grown by 20 per cent in that time, the hospitals in both cities have failed to keep pace. The Albury Wodonga Health hospitals see more patients than Ballarat or Bendigo and twice as many as Shepparton. The New South Wales government and the federal government have recognised this with $75 million and $15 million promised for hospital upgrades and in continued bipartisan politics. Unfortunately the Treasurer has just left the chamber, but I am sure to catch up with him in the lift sometime today and get the message to him, amongst other correspondence in the future. The Victorian government has not committed a dime yet, which is no surprise, but we will keep working on that in the spirit of bipartisan politics. Last Friday’s meeting decided the focus should be on Albury Wodonga Health’s master plan and the planned campus makeovers. It has decided to end any distraction around a greenfield site. With that locked away, I would love the health minister in the other place to come and visit our hospitals and meet the people that make that place tick, and I would hope and encourage the government to match New South Wales. MEN’S HEALTH Mr CARBINES (Ivanhoe) (09:42): Last week was Men’s Health Week, and I will just quote some details from the Vic Men’s Health Report Card 2019 to get things rolling:

Our sons are less educated than our daughters. Our brothers die younger than our sisters. Our fathers are more likely to die at work than our mothers. Our male friends are more likely to die by suicide than our female friends. The 2019 Men’s Health Report Card for Victoria highlights 10 key areas where men and boys are not faring as well as women and girls. The intention of this report is to inspire key stakeholders across Victoria to focus more time, money and energy on improving the lives and health of men and boys in alignment with the National Men’s Health Strategy (2020–2030). By taking collective action on the gender issues that impact men and boys, we can create a healthier future for men and a healthier future for everyone. It is not a competition. The solution to this problem is not to stop working to improve the lives of women and girls but to increase our efforts to tackle issues facing men and boys. In particular I was pleased to participate in the Men’s Health Awards on behalf of the Minister for Health just last week. I have been inspired by some of the work that men are doing, but I also pick up on some of the work that our government is doing, including the $1 million each year to support the 360 men’s sheds across Victoria; the $4 million for the National Centre for Farmer Health from 2020 for four years to boost health and wellbeing among farmers, who are predominantly male; and $800 000 over three years for the Sons and Daughters of the West, a targeted health and wellbeing program. I commend the report to all members. MEMBERS STATEMENTS 2372 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

SOUTH-WEST COAST ELECTORATE Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (09:44): I am at a loss to explain how the Andrews Labor government has prioritised its spending in the South-West Coast electorate. How does a rational government decide to prioritise rebuilding a library ahead of providing funding for a much-needed refurbishment of a chronically outdated hospital or the repair of our dangerous and dilapidated roads? My region’s primary hospital, Warrnambool Base Hospital, has received no funding to build its long- awaited and much-needed stage 2 redevelopment. The hospital is the major health care provider for over 110 000 people. Its emergency department and theatre suites have outgrown their intended capacity by more than 10 000 patients per year. The plans have been drawn up, the project is ready to go, so why is this government continuing to drag its feet on this vital project? The state government has also turned its back on our roads and failed to match the $140 million delivered by federal member for Wannon, Dan Tehan, to fix key south-west roads, including Princes Highway. This government has also reduced spending on country roads by $220 million. If this city- centric Andrews Labor government were serious about fixing country roads, they would have matched the federal government’s funding and not be scaling back spending on rural and regional roads. Just this week people had been calling my office after recent roadworks on the highway have fallen apart. Don’t believe me? Go and have a look for yourself at the photos on my Facebook page. I cannot fathom why Labor are not working at making Princes Highway their priority. Have a look at what we are having to put up with. WELLSPRINGS FOR WOMEN Ms RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (09:45): I rise today to pay credit to an organisation that supports women in my community—Wellsprings for Women. I was invited by Rida Khan, the communications projects officer, to have a conversation with women from across our community about the importance of women supporting women. I must say I was delighted with the opportunity. Rida introduced me to women who have chosen to make the south-east of Melbourne their home. They were women whose heritage is Pakistani, women who were born in South America, India or Bangladesh and those who are from Iran. Regardless of the country of their birth, their message was universal: they love living in Australia, but they want their skills recognised. I was conscious of how incredible their language skills are. Many of them spoke many languages other than English, and of course many of them spoke English perfectly. Wellsprings for Women encourage support, learning and friendship. It is an organisation that particularly supports women of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Wellsprings provides programs designed in consultation with and in response to the needs of women in Dandenong, Casey and Cardinia. They provide classes in English and computer literacy and work to improve the health and wellbeing of the women in their care. In terms of social support, they provide home visitations, mentoring, one-on-one support and assistance. They are there to help. I recently spent time in a meeting for a woman who was a recent arrival to Australia living on a temporary protection visa, and she was consumed with uncertainty. Wellsprings for Women jumped up quick as a flash to help. QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (09:47): I rise today to congratulate five citizens of the Mornington electorate who were recognised for their service to the community in the Queen’s Birthday honours. Mr Ken Rowe was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for service to the communities of Frankston and the Mornington Peninsula over many years in a number of capacities. Dr James Lucas was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for his service as one of our leading paediatric dental specialists and for his service to professional organisations. I am also delighted that three people I know well were recognised in this year’s list, all three being awarded the OAM. Ms Helen Gordon was recognised for her service to community health and to

MEMBERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2373 physiotherapy; Lieutenant Colonel Alan McDonald, a Korean War veteran and a former councillor colleague of mine at the old Shire of Mornington, was recognised for his significant service to veterans; and Mr Alex Anderson, who also served his country, was recognised for his considerable contribution over many years to Legacy and to Rotary and particularly as a bail justice, frequently called from his bed in the middle of the night to provide that vital service. All are worthy recipients, and I congratulate them on behalf of the community of Mornington. DOLPHIN GYMNASTICS CLUB Mr MORRIS: On another matter I would like to recognise the recent achievements of members of the Dolphin Gymnastics Club, four men’s artistic gymnasts and two team coaches, as part of Team Victoria at the 2019 Australian senior gymnastics championships. The men won 10 medals and three Australian championship individual apparatus titles. I am sure all members would agree that is an excellent result. On behalf of the Mornington community, congratulations to the Dolphins on such a fantastic achievement. SAVANT THAKUR Ms HUTCHINS (Sydenham) (09:48): I rise to commemorate the life of Savant Thakur and offer my sincere condolences to his family. Savant was a truly amazing man from Sydenham. He was a loving brother, son, grandson and friend, and a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, a Duchenne muscular dystrophy ambassador, a very passionate Western Bulldogs supporter and the kindest of souls. For some people it takes a lifetime to understand their purpose, but Savant found his definition at a very young age. He dedicated his short working life to finding a cure for a very, very horrible disease that he was diagnosed with, which eventually took his life—that is, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. His family have said that, ‘Nothing about Savant’s life was easy, other than his ability to love and remain positive all the time’. Savant cared a lot about the Very Special Kids foundation and the highly commendable work that they do in supporting young kids with life-threatening conditions. His family have said he would want the money that would otherwise be spent on flowers to go to the Very Special Kids foundation, so I encourage people in my electorate to support that foundation and donate. Rest in peace, Savant Thakur, 1991–2019. GIPPSLAND EAST ELECTORATE SCHOOLS Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (09:50): A recent report based on NAPLAN data has shown the widening gap between city and country student performance, with rural and regional schools as much as 20 points behind city schools. I represent an electorate that has 50 schools but as yet, in five years, we have had no visit from the Minister for Education to any of our schools. This is simply not good enough. The minister has called for another expensive report to find out why country students are falling behind their city cousins. What he could actually do that would be better than that is visit some of the rural schools—like any one of the 50 in my electorate—and discuss firsthand with parents, teachers and students the challenges they face in getting a good education. Bairnsdale Secondary College has invited the minister on a number of occasions to see the decrepit state of the school buildings and commit to a second stage of its upgrade; the Liberal-Nationals built stage 1. The minister said in February 2015 he would come to the school when his diary permitted, but four years later his diary has not permitted a visit to East Gippsland and Bairnsdale, so I encourage him to come down and visit our schools. ENVIRONMENT EFFECTS STATEMENTS AUDIT Mr T BULL: In March 2017 the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning provided a response to the Auditor-General’s audit into the effectiveness of the environment effects statement process. The response spelled out eight proposed actions that the department would undertake to address concerns raised by the audit. I have written to two ministers to see if these actions have been

MEMBERS STATEMENTS 2374 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 implemented. I have not had a response in two months, and I would encourage a response given that we have a mineral sands proposal pending in my electorate. VICTORIAN RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING FOUNDATION Ms SETTLE (Buninyong) (09:51): Many in this house will know that I am passionate about issues around gambling. As many of you know, I have been affected by gambling, and I will work very hard in this area. So I was utterly delighted to have a visit on 30 May from the Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation to Ballarat. It was wonderful to have her there and even more wonderful to hear her announcement, which was $55 million worth of funding to go to the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, but in particular to work with their partner groups. In Ballarat the partner agency is Child and Family Services Ballarat, and we are funding 11 agencies across 15 areas. The funding also included $2.2 million specifically to support Indigenous and linguistically diverse communities with their gambling addiction, because really it affects everyone. The 2019–20 budget allocated $153 million over four years to the foundation, and I am incredibly proud of the work this government does. I am also working with the Ballarat interagency task force on gambling harm, and we will be releasing a report on community attitudes this Friday. I commend people to the Ballarat City Council website and the ‘MySay’ section to hear about that survey. MCRAE WOOD, OAM Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (09:53): I wish to pay tribute to local identity McRae Norman Wood, who sadly passed away on 27 May. Recognised in 2017 with an Order of Australia Medal for his extensive and dedicated career in local education, he was an integral member of and volunteer for many community groups, including Rotary, Probus, Scouts and Meals on Wheels. My sincerest condolences to his wife, Judy, and to all of Mac’s family at this difficult time. WAYNE CASEY Mr NORTHE: I would also like to pay tribute to Wayne Casey, who we sadly lost on 11 June. Wayne was a trailblazer in our community who will forever be remembered as a co-founder of the Gippsland Community Leadership Program. Wayne was born in Yallourn and served a 30-year career with the State Electricity Commission of Victoria and was then the chief executive officer of Energy Brix. Wayne was a local success story who gave back to his community in his many volunteer roles. Condolences to his wife, Carol, and to all of Wayne’s family at this sad time. DEREK AMOS AND DETECTIVE SENIOR SERGEANT CRAIG GYE Mr NORTHE: Two community members were deservedly recognised in this year’s Queen’s Birthday honours list. Derek Amos was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his service to the Gippsland community. Derek is a former member for Morwell and Latrobe City councillor. He has been busy in his apparent retirement, having founded Barrier Breakers, an organisation that supports sufferers of mental health illness. Congratulations, Derek. Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Gye was awarded an Australian Police Medal in recognition of his dedicated career with Victoria Police. Craig helped to establish the Gippsland multidisciplinary centre to ensure local victims of sexual assault are treated with care, dignity and support. Congratulations, Craig, on this recognition. GLENALLEN SCHOOL Mr FREGON (Mount Waverley) (09:54): It was great to have the Premier out to the Mount Waverley district in April to visit the Glenallen School. Glenallen, under the guidance of principal Michael Cole, caters to students with a wide range of intellectual and physical abilities.

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Michael toured the Premier and me around the school showing off their great facilities, including the newly upgraded Tim Disken pool. The pool has been named after the Rio 2016 Paralympian gold medallist and alumni of Glenallen. Glenallen received $2 million in the 2016–17 budget and this funding has been used to modernise the pool facilities, change rooms and bathrooms to improve the accessibility for the students. Whilst there we met with the students of the S4 class and we discovered that they were coming to visit us in Parliament to learn about what we do here. So on 23 April the S4 students Ava Donovan, Ayva Crennan, Hamish White, Jack Gibson, Heidi Jones-Staebe and Shilpi Shah, alongside their teacher Deborah, visited Parliament, and we all enjoyed the tour. Glenallen has just turned 40 years old, and to celebrate they held an art exhibition, where I was lucky enough to pick up a beautiful piece created over the past two years by multiple classes with the help of multiple teachers. I want to acknowledge the whole school community, made up of teachers, staff, volunteers, parents and students, who make Glenallen the great school that it is. We are very lucky to have them in our area. I wish them all the best for the next 40 years. SPECTRUM JOURNEYS Ms VALLENCE (Evelyn) (09:56): I rise to recognise the incredible work of local organisation Spectrum Journeys, which provides an important service for families, teachers and professionals who support children on the autism spectrum. I am a huge advocate for this service and the tireless efforts of director, Kate Johnson, operations, Carly Hall, and all the staff and volunteers. Spectrum Journeys began as a small group of passionate women with children on the autism spectrum and has grown into an incredible organisation with professional therapists onsite and an extensive series of workshops and programs for educators and carers, including one uniquely for fathers. They have an awesome team of volunteers who lovingly put together 100s of ‘blessing bags’ each month, which they gift to the unsung heroes, the carers of kids with autism. I was incredibly proud to host Kate Johnson and Charlinda Parsons at our local National Day of Thanks last month in acknowledgement of their contribution to our community with the amazing services that they provide. The calibre of the team and the services at Spectrum Journeys is remarkable. I commend these women on their vision and commitment, and I look forward to continuing to advocate for them and work alongside them for many years to come. Congratulations to Spectrum Journeys on such a fantastic job in our local community. FOOTSCRAY CITY COLLEGE Ms HALL (Footscray) (09:57): I rise to congratulate a wonderful local school in my electorate. I have spoken previously in the chamber about how successful Footscray City College is at raising intelligent, thoughtful citizens who we can all be proud of. Recently the school was one of three finalists nominated for a ResourceSmart Schools award in the category of Community Leadership School of the Year. I am thrilled to congratulate the school on winning the award for their genius horticulture program, which I know the teaching staff and students work so hard on. ASYLUM SEEKER RESOURCE CENTRE Ms HALL: As it is Refugee Week I would like to thank my Footscray neighbours the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and particularly Kon, the CEO, for all the extraordinary work they do throughout Victoria. This week I was pleased to organise a visit for parliamentarians to tour the centre. Thank you to my colleagues who attended, in particular Minister Foley who shared with the volunteers the news that the Andrews government would be stepping in where the federal government has failed, providing $3 million to support their work to stop vulnerable people from falling through the cracks.

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FOOTSCRAY SMALL BUSINESS Ms HALL: I would also like to thank Minister Somyurek, who visited Footscray earlier in the year to speak with local traders about small business matters. The Andrews government is working hard to help small businesses in ways that matter to them, and I am pleased that the Small Business Bus has visited once already and will be conducting a follow-up visit to the Footscray electorate in July, which will give small business owners advice and assistance in their neighbourhood. 3ZZZ Ms HALFPENNY (Thomastown) (09:58): June 18 marks the 30th anniversary of the ethnic community radio station 3ZZZ. For 30 years 3ZZZ has been broadcasting 24 hours a day in 60 languages and reaching over 400 000 listeners within Victoria. The programs are prepared and broadcast by community-elected and accountable volunteers, some 400 of them informing, educating and entertaining and above-all empowering people to fully participate in the affairs of their communities, the state and the nation and keeping them in touch with their countries of origin. 3ZZZ is widely recognised as the leading community and ethnic radio station in Australia. 3ZZZ is a major broadcasting and multicultural institution promoting the values and principles of multiculturalism and combating racism. The Victorian government has recognised the importance of 3ZZZ from its very inception by funding its establishment and more recently committing $100 000 for the expansion of broadcasting capacity to meet growing demands. Last week I had the great honour and privilege to attend an award presentation for each one of the 60 participating broadcasting groups for invaluable services to their respective communities and public radio. It was a collective thankyou to these magnificent volunteers and many pioneers. Looking through the book From 3ZZ to 3ZZZ: A Short History of Ethnic Broadcasting in Australia one can see an army of people who made it happen, especially the late Walter Lippmann and George Zangalis and current president George Salloum. HER MAJESTY’S THEATRE, BALLARAT Ms ADDISON (Wendouree) (10:00): Ballarat’s Her Majesty’s Theatre is in need of urgent structural repairs to be safe for performers, patrons and visitors, and the Andrews Labor government is committed to saving it. Her Maj was opened in 1875 and is a beloved icon of our city. Our glorious theatre represents the opulence of the 19th century goldfields era. It is irreplaceable. The theatre is home to the Royal South Street Society’s eisteddfod, which attracts 11 000 competitors to Ballarat for 100 days of competitions each year and which provides a huge boost for our local economy. It is also utilised by touring professionals, local productions, schools and ballet schools for their end-of-year recitals. The Andrews Labor government will deliver $10 million of the $22.3 million required to save this grand old theatre. I am pleased that the City of Ballarat has committed $5.3 million and Heritage Victoria has already committed $2 million. However, the project is $5 million short. The federal Labor member for Ballarat, the Honourable Catherine King, promised the money, but the Liberal Party has refused to match the funding. They have remained silent on this. I am calling on the federal government to provide the $5 million to complete this project. We need the Morrison coalition to put in their fair share to ensure the future of our national treasure. MICHELE PHILLIPS, OAM Mr TAK (Clarinda) (10:01): Congratulations to Michele Phillips, OAM, founder of the South Oakleigh Wildlife Shelter, for receiving the Order of Australia Medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. Ms Phillips has run the South Oakleigh shelter for more than 30 years and is a true champion for wildlife protection and conservation. The shelter is the largest of its kind in the Melbourne area and rescue activities cover a vast region—all across the city and the south-eastern suburbs. Rescuers often travel hundreds of kilometres weekly to assist injured and orphaned wildlife. In addition, the shelter

MEMBERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2377 also helps to educate schools and operates a 24/7 emergency response unit, which is available for bushfires and other emergencies. The medal is a wonderful acknowledgement of Ms Phillips’s achievements and service. AUSTRALIAN WOODTURNING EXHIBITION Mr TAK: I would like to commend Cheryl and Bill David, all of the organisers and all of the participants for yet another successful Australian Woodturning Exhibition held last Sunday. It was an honour to present the best in show award. Congratulations to the 2019 recipient, Stephen Hughes. NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK Ms WARD (Eltham) (10:03): Our community recently experienced a wonderful reconciliation week flag-raising ceremony and leadership workshop with the Nillumbik Reconciliation Group and Nillumbik Shire Council. Thank you to emcees Zac Broeren and Lily Whiteman from Eltham High School, and a special shout-out to Andeli Zuzi , Kai Nolan and teacher Darren Squires for their wonderful rendition of Beds are Burning. Past students Brodey and Owain Morton created a beautiful song about their Indigenous connection, which was moving to listen to. Thank you also to Eltham North Primary School’s Bec Ines for her role in raising the Aboriginal flag, and school captains Hannah, Aiden, Cameron and Claudia for speaking so well about what reconciliation means to them. We also listened to an amazing song created by Montmorency South Primary School’s community, and thanks to teachers Tara DeBondi, the reconciliation coordinator, and drama teacher Andy Coates for their leadership with this song. I also thank and acknowledge Wurundjeri elder Uncle Ian Hunter for his words of inclusion and leadership. MICHAEL CARTER Ms WARD: I thank Michael Carter for all he gave to our community through his life. He recently died peacefully at home surrounded by his loving family, as was his wish. Michael had a warm, cheeky smile he shared often, especially in his volunteer community work with the Montmorency kindergarten, Montmorency Primary School—a full 19 years—Eltham High School, Heidelberg scouts, Montmorency Petrie Park Probus and the Diamond Valley Bushwalking Club. He was a well- respected, community-minded friend, adventurer and mentor, and was loved by many. I will miss regularly bumping into him and having a chat in Were Street. My love to Connie, his wife of 57 years, and his family. PAT CRONIN FOUNDATION Ms WARD: Recently the Speaker and I attended the Pat Cronin Foundation Be Wise Ball. I was glad to attend this event with the Speaker, who is a long-time family friend of the extended Cronin clan. Over 400 people attended this charity gala to honour Pat’s memory, raising awareness of the campaign against the coward punch and to support this terrific and important foundation. More than $40 000 was raised, which will help the foundation’s education, awareness and research programs. I thank Pat’s family for the tremendous and important work they have done in ending the coward punch. We cannot know how many lives they are saving, but I know that both the Speaker and I have no doubt their work is indeed saving lives— (Time expired) MEMBER FOR SUNBURY Mr DIMOPOULOS (Oakleigh) (10:04): I want to put on record that the member of Sunbury and his partner/wife, Jasmine Stanhope, had a baby girl recently. It is an extraordinary gift for a wonderful couple. Not only do the good people of Sunbury have an excellent local member but they now have a local member with a new family member.

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Bills LOCAL GOVERNMENT (SOUTH GIPPSLAND SHIRE COUNCIL) BILL 2019 Council’s agreement The ACTING SPEAKER (Mr Carbines): I have received a message from the Legislative Council agreeing to the Local Government (South Gippsland Shire Council) Bill 2019 without amendment. ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION AMENDMENT BILL 2019 Statement of compatibility Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (10:06): In accordance with the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006, I table a statement of compatibility in relation to the Environment Protection Amendment Bill 2019.

In my opinion, the Environment Protection Amendment Bill 2019, as introduced to the Legislative Assembly, is compatible with human rights as set out in the Charter. I base my opinion on the reasons outlined in this statement. Overview The Environment Protection Amendment Bill 2019 amends the Environment Protection Act 1970 to introduce a ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags and creates related offences. The Bill bans the provision by retailers of all bags with handles that comprise, either wholly or partly, plastic; and where any part of the bag has a thickness of 35 microns or less, including degradable, biodegradable and compostable plastic. The Bill provides for new offences relating to the supply of banned plastic bags (the ‘supply offence’) and the provision of false information as to the composition of a banned plastic bag and, whether a plastic bag is a banned plastic bag (the ‘information offence’). New compliance and enforcement powers are included, which will enable the Environment Protection Authority (EPA) or authorised officers to issue remedial notices and prevent and respond to breaches of the new ban provisions. The Bill also makes a number of unrelated amendments to the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018 to make technical changes and rectify minor errors in that Act. When the key provisions of the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018 commence, the Act will repeal the Environment Protection Act 1970 to set out a reformed environment protection framework. The Bill provides for the errors in the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018 to be rectified ahead of the commencement of the relevant provisions. These amendments will ensure the original intent of the Act is given effect. They do not give rise to any new Charter issues beyond those outlined in the Statement of Compatibility in relation to the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018. Human Rights Issues The human rights protected by the Charter that are relevant to the Bill are: • The right to privacy and reputation (section 13); • Property rights (section 20); and • The right to be presumed innocent (section 25(1)). The right to privacy and reputation Section 13(a) of the Charter provides that a person has the right not to have their privacy, family, home or correspondence unlawfully or arbitrarily interfered with. Section 13(b) provides that a person has the right not to have their reputation unlawfully attacked. An interference will be lawful if it is permitted by a law which is precise and appropriately circumscribed, and will be arbitrary only if it is capricious, unpredictable, unjust or unreasonable, in the sense of being disproportionate to the legitimate aim sought. Adverse publicity order If a person is found guilty of either the supply offence or the information offence contained in the Bill, they may be made subject to one of the penalties contained in existing section 67AC of the Environment Protection Act 1970, including an order that they take action to publicise the offence or related matters. To the extent that this may interfere with a person’s privacy or reputation, in my view any such interference will be lawful and not arbitrary, and therefore will not limit the right to privacy. Any interference with a

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person’s privacy or reputation arising from an adverse publicity order made under section 67AC relating to a finding of guilt would be lawful, as it is provided for by the clear provisions of the Act. Such an order will also not be arbitrary as it serves legitimate purposes of deterrence and informing the public of wrongdoing, and will have been subject to the safeguards that apply to court proceedings including the obligation to provide the offender with a fair hearing. Further, any information made public pursuant to an adverse publicity order is likely to already be in the public domain as a result of the court proceedings. Authorized officer power of entry Section 55(1) of the Environment Protection Act 1970 sets out the current circumstances in which an authorized officer may enter premises for compliance purposes. The powers of entry in section 55(1), in their current form, do not enable an authorized officer to enter retail premises to determine whether a retailer complies with the plastic bag ban. Failing to extend these powers of entry would limit the EPA’s ability to prevent environmental harm through enforcing the ban, which largely relies on regulation at the point of supply to effect a reduction in the number of plastic bags in circulation. To ensure that the ban is effective, clause 7 of the Bill amends section 55(1) of the Environment Protection Act 1970 to extend existing powers of entry of authorized officers to enter, ‘at any reasonable time, any retail premises’. The purpose of extending powers of entry to retail premises is to ensure compliance with the new plastic bag offences at the point of supply. I acknowledge that these powers of entry may result in interferences with the privacy of occupants in retail premises; however, in my view, any such interferences will be lawful and not arbitrary and therefore not amount to a limit on the right to privacy. The proposed expanded powers of entry onto retail premises are proportional to the existing powers of entry afforded to authorized officers under the Environment Protection Act 1970 onto other regulated premises; and consistent with the Environment Protection Act 2017 amendments which are yet to take effect. As the exercise of the proposed powers of entry will be lawful, compatibility with the right to privacy turns on whether any interference they may cause is arbitrary. The prohibition on arbitrariness requires that the interference with privacy must be reasonable in the circumstances of the law’s legitimate purpose. Clause 7 provides appropriate safeguards to reduce the potential for these interferences to be arbitrary in nature. For example, the exercise of these powers of entry is permitted ‘at any reasonable time’. This requires authorised officers to consider, on every occasion they propose to exercise these powers of entry, whether entering at that time is ‘reasonable’. Further, the criteria contained in section 55 that apply to the existing powers of entry will also apply in this case, including the requirement that the entry be only for a permitted purpose such as to determine whether there has been compliance with or any contravention of the Act. These statutory requirements mean that the powers of entry do not apply at large, and will protect against unreasonable or arbitrary exercise of the proposed powers of entry. Additionally, the proposed powers of entry to retail premises are rationally connected to the purpose of reducing the provision of banned plastic bags from the retail premises. Without extending the powers of entry to retail premises, the ability of EPA to enforce the plastic bag ban would be frustrated. Failing to extend these powers would limit the EPA’s ability to enforce the ban, and therefore the effectiveness of the policy, noting that a reduction in the number of plastic bags in circulation relies on regulation at the point of supply. I consider that any interference with privacy under the proposed powers of entry will be lawful and not arbitrary, as it will be reasonable in the circumstances and proportional to the end sought. Property rights Section 20 of the Charter provides that a person must not be deprived of their property other than in accordance with law. This right requires that powers which authorise the deprivation of property are conferred by legislation or common law, are confined and structured rather than unclear, are accessible to the public, and are formulated precisely. Seizure and forfeiture of property Section 55(1) of the Environment Protection Act 1970 provides that an authorized officer may take and remove samples to determine whether there has been compliance or contravention with the Environment Protection Act 1970 and to protect the environment. Under the Bill, enforcing compliance with the plastic bag ban will be subject to the existing enforcement scheme contained in the Environment Protection Act 1970, including the seizure power in section 55(1). This means that when enforcing the supply and information offences under proposed sections 45ZM and 45ZN, a retailer may be deprived of samples of plastic bags which are suspected of being banned plastic bags. However, any exercise of the seizure powers by the EPA would be in accordance with the law as formulated by these precise provisions. In my view, any deprivation of property through the enforcement of the plastic bag ban will be reasonable and lawful and is therefore compatible with section 20 of the Charter.

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The right to be presumed innocent Section 25(1) of the Charter provides that a person charged with a criminal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law. The right in section 25(1) is relevant where a statutory provision shifts the burden of proof onto an accused in a criminal proceeding, so that the accused is required to prove matters to establish, or raise evidence to suggest, that they are not guilty of an offence. The supply offence in proposed section 45ZM, contained in clause 6 of the Bill, constitutes a strict liability offence for the provision of banned plastic bags. In order for the offence to be made out, the prosecution will only have to prove the conduct of the retailer, namely the prohibited provision of the plastic bag, occurred. The creation of a strict liability offence removes the requirement for the prosecution to prove the element of fault. This gives rise to a risk that a person may be found guilty of the offence where they did not know that they were providing a banned plastic bag, although a person does not commit a strict liability offence if they act under an honest and reasonable mistake as to the existence of facts which, if true, would have made that conduct innocent. The availability of the defence of honest and reasonable mistake of fact that applies to strict liability offences may appear to engage the Charter right to be presumed innocent of a criminal charge until proven guilty, to the extent that in order to raise that defence, a person would be required to adduce some evidence that he or she acted under an honest and reasonable mistake. However, the prosecution retains the burden of proving the absence of an honest and reasonable mistake. Further, the proposed strict liability offence serves an important public purpose as it is fundamental to the effective deterrence of the supply of banned plastic bags. As such, it is justified in preventing the serious environmental harm that results from the widespread dissemination of plastic bags from multiple points of supply. The ban’s enforcement regime would be undermined if the EPA was required to prove mental intent, knowledge or recklessness for each prosecution. In my view, a less restrictive measure of enforcement, such as by creating an exception for reasonable excuse for supply, would not be appropriate considering the strong public interest in preventing indelible harm to the environment through the dissemination of banned plastic bags. I do not consider that the supply offence being one of strict liability limits the right to be presumed innocent as it only places an evidential burden on an accused. Moreover, for the reasons stated here, I consider the imposition of strict liability for the supply offence is necessary and appropriate in the circumstance. Hon Lily D’Ambrosio MP Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change Minister for Solar Homes Second reading Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (10:07): I move:

That this bill be now read a second time. I ask that my second-reading speech be incorporated into Hansard. Incorporated speech as follows: This Bill will achieve two objectives—to introduce a ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags, and to correct minor technical errors in the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018. The problems with plastic Plastic is ubiquitous in our society. Because it is light and inexpensive—much cheaper than other materials— it has become an almost indispensable material across all sectors of the economy. We recognise that plastic is fundamental to our modern lives and is used in sectors ranging from construction and transportation to healthcare and packaging. We acknowledge its important role in the global economy—including Victoria’s. It protects goods against contamination, preserves food and because it’s light—reduces weight in transportation, saving fuel and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transport. However, one of the adverse effects of the omnipresent nature of plastics has been the rise of a throwaway culture centred on convenience. Single-use plastic items, many of which are used for minutes or even seconds, have become commonplace in our society, yet they can take hundreds of years to break up in the environment. Microplastics, which are very small pieces of plastic that pollute the environment, have been recognised by the Environment Protection Authority as an emerging pollutant of concern. When plastic waste ends up in the environment, it becomes increasingly problematic to manage and can be devastating for animals and entire

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ecosystems. Reducing the number of plastic bags we use is an important part of addressing the overall impact of plastic pollution in Victoria. We are addressing the growing issue of plastics The Bill I am introducing today will implement a ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags in Victoria. It is an important milestone in tackling problematic plastics in our environment and will deliver positive outcomes for our natural environment, animal life, waste stream and our public amenity. The ban will encourage greater uptake of reusable bags and build on positive momentum that has been growing in our communities towards embracing more sustainable alternatives. The Bill bans the provision of all lightweight plastic shopping bags made—in whole or part—of plastic, where any part of the bag has a thickness of 35 microns or less. The ban will include biodegradable, degradable and compostable plastic bags as we know they have comparable impacts on the environment. The ban will result in significant behaviour change by preventing retailers from providing shoppers a banned plastic bag. The ban also prohibits retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers from providing false or misleading information about the composition of a banned plastic bag; or whether a bag is banned. This includes the omission of information that a retailer, wholesaler or manufacturer should reasonably know about a bag’s composition, or whether it is in fact a banned or exempt plastic bag. Similar to other jurisdictions, the Bill introduces penalties for the two offences I have just outlined. The Bill will also correct minor technical errors in the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018, expected to commence on the first of July 2020. That Act was passed to comprehensively reform Victoria’s environment protection laws. The technical amendments will ensure the new legislation operates as intended. We have worked closely with Victorian communities and businesses during the development of the plastic bag ban. We have learnt from other jurisdictions, both in Australia and overseas, and from these experiences we have designed a ban that will produce the right outcomes for Victoria. The ban builds on initiatives already taken by retailers in Victoria to stop providing lightweight plastics bags, including most recently Coles and Woolworths in July 2018. The ban will not only reduce plastic pollution and the consequential negative impacts on our environment, wildlife and amenity, it will also build awareness and encourage all Victorians to use more sustainable products and packaging. It will help inspire the adoption of circular economy principles, where avoidance and reuse are encouraged as much as possible. We have observed the recent introduction of plastic bag bans elsewhere in Australia and have aligned our approach with that taken in other jurisdictions to ensure consistency for retailers and suppliers, some of whom operate in a national market. National consistency is also important for consumers who can travel between jurisdictions in the knowledge that the policy on lightweight plastic bags is the same wherever they go. The ban will also help reduce the rate of contamination from plastic bags in kerbside recycling bins, and improve sorting, reprocessing and the quality of recyclable packaging. Through this ban we support global efforts to improve the productive use of finite resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle the impacts of single-use plastics. We have listened to the views of the Victorian community and are therefore putting a ban in place by the end of 2019. This Bill provides for this, via amendments to the Environment Protection Act 1970. The legislative framework for environmental protection has recently been overhauled by the Environment Protection Amendment Act 2018, which is expected to commence on the first of July 2020. The new legislation will include broader regulation-making powers, including the ability to ban plastic bags, and expanded powers of entry and inspection by authorised officers to aid enforcement of the ban. Introducing a plastic bag ban in 2019 therefore requires the ban to initially take effect through amendments to the Environment Protection Act 1970, and then continue under regulations to be made under the Environment Protection Act 2017. Preparing retailers and consumers To ensure Victorian retailers are ready for the ban, the government has engaged the National Retail Association to deliver a 12-month education and engagement program. The program will focus on in-store face-to-face engagement with small-to-medium businesses across Victoria, providing information in accessible ways, and encouraging long-term sustainable packaging solutions. In implementing this program, the National Retail Association draws on years of experience in the retail sector and utilises its extensive network and learnings from similar programs it’s run in Queensland and Western Australia as part of the implementation of plastic bag bans in those states. By its nature, the program will also assist in promoting the ban to consumers, including through signage at retail outlets. Sustainability Victoria commenced a consumer-targeted education campaign, ‘Better Bag Habits’ in 2018 to get the Victorian public ready for the ban. This innovative campaign involved comedian Sam Simmons singing instructions to the public to remember their ‘Bag, Wallet, Keys & Phone’. The catchy tune reached

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almost six million consumers. Sustainability Victoria will deliver Phase 2 of this campaign across Victoria in the months leading up to the ban taking effect in November. We are listening to the Victorian public We know that the Victorian community takes the issue of plastic pollution very seriously. Our public consultation on plastic pollution, held in 2018, received over 8,000 submissions—more than any public consultation undertaken by the government that year. Respondents expressed strong support for a ban on lightweight plastic shopping bags, with more than 96 per cent of submissions supporting a ban. We also heard that the Victorian community wants more action on plastic pollution. We are therefore committed to turning the tide on plastic pollution entering the Victorian environment. We know that the problem with plastic starts long before it reaches our natural environment. Plastic waste and pollution are symptomatic of an imperfect system in which most products are designed with little or no consideration of what happens to them after they are used. We must move upstream and tackle the plastic pollution at its source. To enjoy the benefits that plastic brings to all of us without compromising the Victorian environment, we need to align our entire plastics system around a common vision, namely to: • Eliminate plastic we do not need and replace those we do with sustainable alternatives • Support innovation so purposeful plastics are designed to be safely reused, recycled or composted • Circulate everything we use, making sure the plastic we produce stays in the economy and never becomes waste or pollution. To achieve this vision, the Victorian Government has committed to developing and implementing several complementary policies, in line with national and international best practice, which will reduce plastic pollution, transition Victoria to a circular economy and improve the value of our recycling system. We have committed to developing a Plastic Pollution Prevention Plan to prioritise the most effective actions to reduce plastic pollution in Victoria. To help guide this plan, we established a reference group of government, industry, community, environmental and academic representatives to provide strategic and expert advice on how plastic pollution can be tackled both at source and in the environment. By 2025, we want to see Victoria leading the country in tackling plastic pollution. Shifting Victoria to a more circular economy can reduce waste generation, increase reuse and recycling of resources and improve waste management. Our circular economy policy and action plan will provide clear policy direction on resource productivity in Victoria. It will consider how governments, businesses and households can all avoid waste, make better use of materials and resources, prolong the life of infrastructure and products, and increase reuse and recycling. The Victorian Government recognises that more needs to be done to increase the resilience of the recycling sector which is why the government released the Recycling Industry Strategic Plan (the Plan) in July 2018 and committed $37 million from the Sustainability Fund to implement it. The central vision of the Plan is that Victoria’s recycling sector transitions to a more resilient, sustainable model. The Plan’s main objectives are to increase our capacity to locally sort and process our recyclable waste, build demand for recycled products, and educate the community to recycle more effectively. This will reduce our reliance on export markets, and therefore our exposure to future market disruptions. The Victorian Government is tackling the challenges facing the recycling industry and helping to reduce plastic pollution with a new $34.9 million package of recycling reforms in its 2019–2020 state budget. This latest package has been committed towards immediate priorities to strengthen the Victorian recycling sector and builds on the strong foundations of the $37 million Recycling Industry Strategic Plan—bringing this government’s total investment in the waste and resource recovery industry to more than $135 million over the last four years to 30 June 2019. Conclusion To close, I want to acknowledge the countless people—volunteers and other dedicated people—who give their time and energy to combatting problematic plastics in our environment. Their commitment to the health of Victoria’s environment and actions to conserve it for future generations is commendable. And to all the individuals and organisations who have been advocating for the introduction of a ban on lightweight plastic bags—thank you for your efforts. We heard you and now it’s done. I commend the Bill to the house.

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Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (10:08): I move: That the debate be now adjourned. Motion agreed to and debate adjourned. Ordered that debate be adjourned for two weeks. Debate adjourned until Thursday, 4 July. Motions BUDGET PAPERS 2019–20 Debate resumed on motion of Mr DONNELLAN: That this house takes note of the 2019–20 budget papers. Ms RICHARDS (Cranbourne) (10:08): I am delighted to have the opportunity to continue my contribution on the amazing Andrews Labor government budget. There is so much to say about education. I have already done a significant contribution on health, but I do want to return to my contribution and add a note of thanks and recognition to one of the great educators in Cranbourne. Cranbourne West Primary School will be granted $700 000 to upgrade their facilities. Andrew Bergmeier is one of those educators whose optimism and passion represents the best of his type of educator. His passion for education is obvious and the great care he shows about the outcomes for these students is inspiring. There have been some strange contributions from those on the other side about non-government schools, and nothing could be further from the truth. St Peter’s College in Clyde North will benefit from $4 million in funding, part of a package $402 million for non-government schools. This large Catholic regional college contributes important programs for our community that go beyond traditional education. I would like to acknowledge Chris Black from St Peter’s for the contribution his school makes to the broader Cranbourne community. The terrific Cranbourne Secondary College will receive $662 000 for early works—to get planning for the upgrades to their refurbished gym and performing arts centre. Principal John Jovic is a great educational leader and I am fortunate to have his wise counsel. For more than 40 years the school has been at the heart of our community, and this investment will continue to ensure it serves local families for years to come. No discussion about Labor’s commitment to education can go without a recognition of the people I serve in Cranbourne getting access to free three-year-old kinder. I spent six years on a kinder committee while my children were little and although it has been a while there is no question that the science is crystal clear: children need access to subsidised kinder so that they will get all the skills they need to be ready for school. It is just not fair for the incredible opportunity to only be available to those with the bank balance to afford it. Everyone knows I love to chat to people and I can tell you that our government’s commitment brought smiles to the faces of so many young people and so many young families in Cranbourne, but it also brought incredible relief. Some parents feel extraordinary guilt about not being able to provide the best for their children. I met people working in part-time jobs in addition to full-time work so they could afford some additional help for their children. Well, kids getting into three-year-old kinder is the best thing we can do. We know two years is better than one, and having a program led by a qualified teacher is an extraordinary element to this vital program. The member for Carrum, in her capacity as the Parliamentary Secretary for Early Childhood Education, joined me recently at two kinders in Cranbourne, Marriott Waters and Fairhaven kinders. The little ones we met were bursting with energy and the early childhood educators were as passionate a group of people as I have met. In the City of Casey there are exceptional early childhood educators and I would like to pay credit to them. I am also particularly proud of our commitment to provide scholarships and incentives for individuals to start looking for a rewarding career as an early childhood

MOTIONS 2384 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 teacher. Our early childhood educators and teachers will play a vital role in implementing this program across the state, but particularly in Cranbourne where there are so many families. I am proud that this program is being rolled out in regional areas first, with Buloke, Hindmarsh, Northern Grampians, South Gippsland, Strathbogie and Yarrambat being the first to benefit from the program. Quality of play-based learning is essential to support children with their learning and development. While I was campaigning I met some amazing people who were so looking forward to the opportunity to go back to TAFE. I met a woman whose life was quite tricky. She had had some complexity in her life and she saw TAFE as the opportunity to get it back together so she could get a car and she could support her children in their lives. I am so proud of our commitment to introduce free TAFE. Lynbrook is a small slice of heaven and it will just become a little bit more heavenly with funding of $300 000 for lighting at Banjo Paterson lake park, thanks to the tireless work of the Lynbrook Residents Association and their continued advocacy and altruistic approach to bringing communities together. I would like to make mention of Jason Wood and Viv Payne for bringing the urgency of these works to my attention. They are of course delighted to know that there will be an upgrade to safety at the intersection of the South Gippsland Highway and Lynbrook Boulevard, with the addition of flashing warning signals. No mention of Lynbrook would be complete without the acknowledgement that the Lynbrook train station will be upgraded, with an additional 135 parking spots. And Lyndhurst, my home town, has not been forgotten. The Marriott Waters Reserve will be expanded with a $1.1 million boost to upgrade the pavilion, the home of the Lynbrook Cricket Club and the Lyndhurst Football and Netball Club. Of course the moment we have all been waiting for has arrived. With thanks to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure for her extraordinary insight, the Cranbourne line is going to be duplicated. This $750 million project will double the number of trains in peak times and deliver trains every 10 minutes along the Cranbourne line. We will not know ourselves with this extraordinary transformation to the suburban rail network. As we speak, work is getting underway on the removal of the level crossing at Evans Road, allowing this road to be reopened after so many years. We are just putting the finishing touches on the widening of Thompsons Road and we will be getting on with the widening of Hall Road and Narre Warren-Cranbourne Road. As you can see, we are getting things done in Cranbourne. There is a lot of fluoro, there are a lot of jobs, there is so much to be proud of. Mr BLACKWOOD (Narracan) (10:14): I am very pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the take-note motion on the budget on behalf on my community. In my 13 years in this place this state budget has to be the worst state budget West Gippsland has ever seen. Not once in the Treasurer’s budget contribution did the word ‘Gippsland’ even appear. The most important project currently missing from the government’s agenda is the West Gippsland Hospital. We face many challenges in the Narracan electorate. Population growth is putting enormous pressure on infrastructure across the electorate, and unless quick action is taken to invest in a new hospital our health services will not be able to keep up with the rapidly increasing demand. A new hospital ticks every box for West Gippsland residents. We have 1200 births a year at the current site, and the number has now been capped because of the constant and increasing demand for the quality midwifery services provided by the medical staff. The emergency department is doing its absolute best in limited space, often bursting with patients needing urgent care. We have limited car parking that results in vehicles parking on Landsborough Street, with visitors and patients having to cross a dangerous, busy road, potentially being illegally parked because there is no space onsite to park safely. The greenfield site between Warragul and Drouin is perfectly located, with excellent transport links and access to the freeway and both towns. It is an absolute no-brainer to build a new hospital on the greenfield site of 59 acres rather than commit the management, staff and patients to years of construction disruption by rebuilding the current hospital that sits on a site of only 27 acres.

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The business case and feasibility study for both sites have been completed, but the Andrews government continues to insult our community by not releasing the details of this work. To make matters even worse, the Victorian government was given the opportunity earlier this year to submit a list of priority capital works projects that could be considered for a share of the Morrison government’s $1.4 billion rural capital health fund. My understanding is that the Department of Health and Human Services compiled a list for the Premier and this list included the West Gippsland Hospital. The federal member for Monash, Russell Broadbent, arranged a meeting with the Prime Minister to request support for the West Gippsland Hospital, only to be told by the Prime Minister that the West Gippsland Hospital was not on the list of priority projects submitted by the Andrews government. The Prime Minister explained with considerable regret that unless the state government supported this project he was unable to provide funding. What a disgrace and slap in the face for our community. All of the planning work has been funded and finalised over the past four years. It clearly stacks up in favour of a new hospital on the greenfield site, and the current hospital is really struggling to cope with increasing demand. Throw into the mix a predicted population of 90 000 by 2035 that our hospital will have to serve, when right now it is really struggling to cope with a population of 52 000. It is my understanding that the Premier ordered that the West Gippsland Hospital be removed from the priority list prepared by the department. How can a Premier who promised to govern for all Victorians commit such an act of betrayal on the community of Narracan? The Premier should be absolutely ashamed of himself for promoting hospital capital projects based on political outcome rather than the genuine healthcare needs of a rapidly growing community. The arrogance of this Premier has no boundaries. And, yes, I know what the Premier would say in retaliation to my comments. He would brag about the $9.5 million that his government has provided for the additional operating theatre and short-stay unit. But let me tell you, these works have proven categorically what the community have been saying for some time: that this is throwing good money after bad, and our community should not be expected to accept second best, or worse still, be expected to drive an hour to get health care. We now find that there is contamination in the structure of the old hospital in the area designated for the new theatre. This has caused the closure of operating theatres for a minimum of two months while all the internal surfaces are stripped and replaced with new vinyl, new ceilings and new fittings. One can only imagine the construction mayhem that would dog a rebuild of this ageing facility and the enormous cost blowouts that would occur. We must build a new West Gippsland Hospital on the greenfield site. There is no other option. With our population growth, another major challenge is public transport. This budget is no better for regional commuters, particularly those on the Gippsland line. Already Gippsland commuters have had the worst end of the stick when it comes to cancellations and delays—hit first by the sky rail project and now with the metro rail tunnel. By now Gippsland commuters are rightly asking what is in all of this for them. The only answer to this is funding for a dedicated line for Gippsland V/Line trains through the metro system, as the coalition promised prior to the last election. Instead Gippsland passengers continue to get hit with line closures, bus replacements and hours longer travel times each day commuting to work and home to their families. No wonder commuter confidence in V/Line and public transport service delivery is at an all-time low. Now, in this budget we see no funding for new carriages desperately needed for long-haul commuters on the Gippsland line. All regional commuters are asking for is a fair share of the benefits that will flow for all the disruption they are enduring. The key elements of this budget are broken promises, cuts to services and increased debt. At a time when families are being asked to do more with less the Premier deliberately makes it harder for people to make ends meet and for businesses to expand and create more jobs. As you look through the budget papers there are massive cuts to many, many areas. The Regional Growth Fund has been cut. There have been cuts to multicultural affairs, agriculture, veterans,

MOTIONS 2386 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 resources, planning, local government and emergency management capability. This list just goes on and on and on, and at the same time the Premier and the Treasurer keep on increasing taxes. Just one example is the whack they are giving to every property in the state by bumping up the fire services levy by 10 per cent. Businesses are doing it tough. Taxing them more will not help generate jobs or growth. On Friday night last I witnessed firsthand an example of the lack of regard this government has for small business and the impact of red tape and over-regulation. We have a new Vietnamese restaurant in Warragul opened two months ago by John Mai, a proud Vietnamese Australian, who has made a significant investment in this business. John’s passion is Vietnamese food and his commitment is to bring the best of Vietnamese traditional cuisine to Warragul, and he has done so with outstanding success. Last Friday night, an officer from the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation rocked up at 7.30 p.m., the busiest time on a Friday night, and demanded to see a red-line plan for the restaurant. John produced the red-line plan provided and approved by the Baw Baw shire that had been sent to the VCGLR, but was told by Tamara Maxwell, the officer, that he would be fined because it had not been stamped by the VCGLR. Their own website explains that the owner is to keep a copy of the last red-line plan that was submitted for approval to the VCGLR. It does not say that it has to be a stamped copy. John had never received a stamped copy from the VCGLR. It is difficult enough to get this type of investment in country towns. We do not need this type of harassment. I guess this happens when the minister does not take control of her department and allows her bureaucrats to operate in an intimidating manner. As I stated at the beginning of my contribution, this is the worst state budget I have ever seen for regional Victoria. The contrast between 16 years of Labor and four years of coalition governments could not be more stark. During our most recent term we established the Regional Growth Fund. We collaborated with local businesses and employers in regional Victoria to deliver real jobs and to help stimulate growth through the Latrobe Valley Industry and Infrastructure Fund. We made the investments in our regional rail network with the Lardners Track rail crossing upgrade and the Warragul railway station car park and underpass. We delivered funding aimed at addressing the neglect Labor had bestowed on our regional roads with our Country Roads and Bridges Fund, and provided the state government’s share of the funding for the Sand Road interchange to get that project delivered. We funded community projects in country towns through the Putting Locals First program, also supported by the Regional Growth Fund that the Andrews government has now cut funding for and abolished. There is one more item that has received no funding in this budget in an area that, if not addressed, has the potential to devastate country communities and country and metropolitan jobs. Our native forest timber industry is being absolutely hammered by the indecision of the Andrews government and the lack of funding to undertake a threatened species survey that is far broader than just the area of forest set aside for timber production. As one local forester recently said to me, ‘Everywhere we look we find a possum and glider’. This supports the recently updated numbers of both species. It also proves that the management plan that was put in place for the Leadbeater’s possum in 1996 has been very, very effective. There is no need to take more resources away from the timber industry. Only the radical Greens keep pushing for more area to be set aside as they know it will lead to the closure of the industry. The hypocrisy of this approach is sickening. To shut down our own sustainable native forest industry and then replace the product it currently supplies with imports from rainforests in countries who have no oversight would be an absolute disgrace. To increase the use of steel and other products that have a massive carbon footprint at the expense of a product that is renewable and stores carbon would also be just plain wrong. The Andrews government need to stop playing politics with the livelihood of hardworking timber families and stand up for them. The Premier should hang his head in shame for the way he allowed his Minister for Agriculture and Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change to hang a harvesting contractor out to dry for two weeks prior to the federal election. The Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2387 and Minister Symes in the other place refused to ensure authorised officers were deployed to the logging coupe at Ballantynes Saddle to begin the process of moving the protestors out of the harvesting zone. The local police attended the site on many occasions, and search and rescue were just waiting for the call from Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions authorised officers but it never arrived due to the disgraceful inaction of the ministers, aided and abetted by the Premier, for fear of upsetting the Greens prior to the federal election. In closing, this budget, just like the failure of the government to protect law-abiding timber workers, fails country Victorians. It is a huge disappointment. Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (10:25): It is a pleasure to stand here and speak on the take- note motion, which is for ultimately what is an extraordinary budget—a budget that has been delivered by the Andrews Labor government, a budget for all Victorians. This is of course the fifth budget that the government has handed down, though the first that I have had the honour of being a part of. At a time when politics around the country and around the world may not give people the hope and security they deserve, this budget and this great state of Victoria shines as a beacon, because this is a budget about keeping promises. It is a budget about delivering, and it is fundamentally a budget about fairness. It is of course unfortunate that the phrase ‘keeping promises’ is so seldom made in reference to anything remotely political, but here in Victoria we are changing that, and we are setting a new standard for being true to what we say and delivering with real action on our commitments. We are not a party of words. We are not a party of illusory policies with no basis in reality. We are a party of action. And it is tangible, funded action that we are delivering in each and every page of this extraordinary budget. It fills me with happiness to be able to say to my constituents in Northcote: this is a budget for you. Indeed this budget delivers on each and every one of the election commitments for my community, whether that be the $1.5 million for the Fronditha aged-care facility, the $150 000 for the Darebin Falcons, the new pocket park, the dog park or of course our schools. As a candidate, before the November election I stood with the Minister for Education outside Wales Street Primary School in Thornbury to announce a commitment of $4.1 million to modernise their ageing buildings. Well, here it is, delivered as promised in this budget, and I could not be happier for this incredible school community who worked with me to make this happen. Indeed for parents in my electorate this budget and this government hears you loud and clear. We hear you are pressed for time as you balance work and the kids. We hear you are working hard to pay the bills, the rent, the mortgage and for doctor’s visits. We hear you fighting for quality education, health care and tailored support for your kids to give them the best start in life. We hear you, and that is why this budget is delivering landmark reforms for parents and children, including the rollout of our baby bundles for new bubs, the rollout of universal three-year-old kinder, the rollout of free dental care for students and the rollout of new early parenting centres. Indeed for the good people of Northcote, in particular for parents and children, this extraordinary budget goes above and beyond. It not only delivers funding for Wales Street Primary School in Thornbury but also secures $7 million for Fairfield Primary School and directs $14.1 million to Alphington Primary School. These two upgrades will mean 400 additional students will have a spot in their local schools as these suburbs grow and we welcome more families. It means a brand-new competition-grade gym for Alphington primary, along with new buildings and classrooms, and we will work with the school to make sure that open space is maximised on their small footprint. At Fairfield this government has already invested $2.5 million for the first stage of upgrades completed earlier this year, which included a brand-new two-storey building. This additional $7 million will mean the second stage of works can begin, including new classrooms at the Wingrove Street site. I do not have to tell the people of Fairfield and Alphington—the 3078 postcode where I grew up— what this collective $21 million in infrastructure funding will mean for their community. They have been under pressure from so many angles, with rapid development putting a strain on services and

MOTIONS 2388 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 infrastructure already, let alone with the 5000 new residents expected at the Amcor development site. This is about futureproofing our community. It is about investing in our futures. And nothing represents our futures better than our kids. This is truly a Labor budget. It is a budget that continues to drive economic growth by delivering on projects that increase the capacity of our economy and the capacity of our people. As the economic headwinds shift, now is not the time to take our foot off the pedal. Why? Because that is what we promised the Victorian people and because it is the right thing to do. Those opposite would have you believe that over the last decade the job of managing our economy was easy. They would have you believe that the global financial crisis never happened. They would have you believe that the best thing governments can do is to maintain the status quo. But we take a different approach. We take the approach that you can manage the finances and you can use those finances to invest in people. We take the view that our people, our communities, our families, our workers are our asset, not a liability, not a cost. Our people are the most valuable asset we have, and that is why we invest in our assets. This is a budget for the people of Victoria, not in spite of them. It is a budget with a heart. That is why we are investing a record $11.7 billion in Victoria’s health care and hospitals, including new dedicated emergency departments for children, because we know our kids need calm and compassion in those toughest of moments. It is why we are upgrading our TAFE campuses and backing in our visionary free TAFE program so that more young people have the opportunity to get the qualifications they need for the jobs they want, and for some to break the cycle of disadvantage. In this budget, which I am incredibly proud to speak on, my community is also benefitting from game- changing statewide announcements in mental health, solar homes and visionary transport infrastructure. And on that last point I want to add that before I was elected this government made commitments to my community. It committed to getting rid of the Grange Road level crossing. It committed to building the new Chandler Highway bridge. Despite opposition on both fronts from the Greens in my area, we made those projects happen, and what extraordinary projects they are. It is not easy to deliver bold projects like these when you have a vocal minority party that is hell-bent on being a spoiler rather than actually backing in what is best for local people. They will do whatever they can to divide the community, spread fear and uncertainty because they know that is all they can do. They know they cannot deliver a single thing for the people of Northcote and so all they have is division. We are not about that. We are not naysayers; we are doers. We said we would deliver Grange Road, we said we would deliver the Chandler, and that is exactly what we have done. This Labor government is fundamentally overhauling and reshaping transport in our state in a way we have never seen before. From small projects to large projects, we are investing in transport, and in the process we are creating thousands of jobs and giving thousands of apprentices valuable training opportunities. This Labor government may be considered brave. It may be considered brave because many of the projects that we are delivering for such a long time were considered just too hard. I speak of the Metro Tunnel, a project that was the vision of the Brumby government and that was shelved for four years by those across the chamber. I speak of the airport rail link, in the too-hard basket for decades. I speak of the Suburban Rail Loop, a project that will transform the way we move around our city and that probably should have been built 30 years ago. I speak of the North East Link; there is a reason it is referred to as the missing link. I speak of the West Gate Tunnel, which will deliver a vital alternative to the West Gate Bridge, and of course I speak in my own community of the Chandler Highway bridge. These are all projects that were just too hard. They required hard work and they required a fight. As the Chandler Highway bridge nears completion, we now have new transport infrastructure commitments for Northcote and Preston—that is, the removal of not just the Bell Street level crossing but another three dangerous and congested level crossings that impact the way locals move around our suburbs. The boom gates at Bell Street, Oakover Road, Murray Road and Cramer Street will all be gone as part of this mammoth plan to open up the suburb of Preston. The Mernda rail line will be

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2389 raised over these roads and will deliver incredible new open space and better local connections for the community. It will also deliver a brand-new Bell railway station, which is sorely needed, and I look forward to working with the member for Preston on delivering this for our constituents. This $6.6 million project is of course just one of the visionary infrastructure projects that this budget delivers for Victorians. This government does not shy away from projects that are too hard. We do not um and ah. We get on with it, because we know that, while they will take some time, they will make a huge difference to our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. It gives me great pleasure to talk on this budget. It is a budget with a heart. It is a budget for all Victorians. It is a budget for every single resident of my electorate of Northcote. I congratulate the Premier and the Treasurer on this outstanding budget, which now reverberates across so many lives. Mr T BULL (Gippsland East) (10:36): Budget responses are quite interesting. We get members of the government standing up and continually espousing how good they are and what they have got for their electorates, and traditionally those on this side—regardless of what parties are sitting on which side—will get up and say how bad they are for their electorates. But I would hopefully provide some data in this contribution that will show that we have been largely ignored in one of the biggest electorates in the state, which is my electorate of Gippsland East. In this budget we had no new infrastructure funding announcements for Maffra, Stratford, Heyfield, Bairnsdale, Lakes Entrance, Omeo or Orbost, just two minor projects that we already knew about many, many months in advance. In fact there is nothing new of any significance in the region, which is replicated across most of rural and regional Victoria in a budget that contains many tax increases with no plan to pay it back, and all of those tax increases will provide revenue that will fund predominantly metropolitan projects. My colleague sitting beside me—the member for Rowville, who is a former member of the community of East Gippsland, a place where he grew up—would be terribly disappointed, like I am, with the complete lack of investment in our region to any level whatsoever. The two relatively small pre-election infrastructure commitments that were funded in the budget were both copied weeks after we announced commitments to them. They were a cafe on Bullock Island and an Omeo mountain bike park. Now, the Omeo mountain bike park had no mention at all in the budget papers—I am told it is there, but it is buried away, hidden somewhere—but other infrastructure projects of greater finance did receive a mention in the budget. It is not there, and the Bullock Island cafe is dependent on a seawall being repaired—and we urge the government to get in behind it and make sure that is done so that project can be delivered. But of more importance, there are a number of critical projects that missed out. One of those was the Bairnsdale Secondary College. Now, the Bairnsdale Secondary College, I think— Mr Wells: It was my school. Mr T BULL: It was your school, and you have seen the condition of that school at the moment: one half of it is fantastic, because it is new; the other half is an absolute disgrace, and that was the half you were probably in. In his fifth year as the Minister for Education, Mr Merlino has been invited down to this school to see the current situation of that school—and he has not visited in five years. Five years. This is despite invitations from the school council in good faith: ‘Come down and just have a look, just come and have a talk to us’. The roof in the library collapses every time we get heavy rain. There is mould growing in the walls from water inundation. The carpets have to be re-laid and classrooms are closed every time we get heavy rain. Now, four years ago, when we invited the Minister for Education down, he said he would come, on radio station 1242, when his diary permitted—four years ago. Not even the minister at the table, the Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Trade, after making that commitment would wait four years. This is the man who comes in here and spouts about how he is in charge of the Education State and that everything is rosy and things are going well. When it comes to the Bairnsdale Secondary College, he speaks with a forked tongue. Not coming at all is nothing short of a disgrace.

MOTIONS 2390 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

The advocacy has been strong, and what we have got in this budget is a little bit of planning money. Well, to me, that is pushing the project out, because in my filing cabinet in my office back in Bairnsdale I have got the plans for stage 2, and they have been sitting there for a few years. But we got some planning money. Now, if there is any additional planning to be done, that is okay. Let us get it done quickly, but announce the funding to build stage 2. We do not want more planning money when that has largely been catered for and looked after; we actually want the building built. There are a number of other projects that could and should have been funded but were not. We were not expecting everything. We were not expecting the world; we just wanted one or two things to cross off the top of the list. The future also looks bleak with the total removal of the Regional Growth Fund. In the past this has funded many projects in my region from when we were in government. Just some of those were: over a quarter of a million dollars for the upgrade of the predominant visitor information centres in East Gippsland; just on $1 million for our magnificent all-abilities playground, funded out of the Regional Growth Fund; $300 000 put towards the three-quarters-of-a-million-dollar Paynesville town centre improvement projects; half a million dollars towards the $3.7 million Bairnsdale library precinct; half a million dollars for the $1.2 million CBD improvement works that were undertaken in Bairnsdale; half a million dollars to Lakes Entrance for a project that cost just shy of $1 million for on-water refuelling on Bullock Island, which is very important for our tourist industry; $300 000 for the Patterson Park project in Metung; $100 000 for the Orbost sensory gardens; $300 000 for the Paynesville Esplanade works; $150 000 for OneHarvest for their beetroot project, which employed a lot of people in our town; $150 000 for the Maffra Cheese Company’s expansion project; and $200 000 for the rail trail. That is just some of the many, many millions of dollars worth of projects that Regional Growth Fund tipped into my region. Under Labor we were not so lucky. When Labor came into power in 2014 one of the first projects that was funded out of the Regional Growth Fund was in Mulgrave. Now, it was sold as an important transport route for rural people. How on earth could your conscience possibly allow you, out of the Regional Growth Fund, to fund a bridge in Mulgrave? I am not saying a bridge should not have been built there, but for goodness sake, do not take the money out of the Regional Growth Fund that is meant to go to rural and regional Victoria. One of the other earlier projects was in Geelong. Now, okay, we could make an argument that perhaps Geelong is part of the regions, but the Regional Growth Fund is predominantly for rural Victoria, and that is where that money should have been allocated. There is nothing for additional drought relief in this budget. Some of our city MPs need to realise that when we get an inch or rain or two of rain after a drought, it is not the end. The impacts of drought go on for several years. After farmers have destocked, they need to re-sow crops, they need to get their pastures back to a level where they can cater for restocking—it goes on and on and on. But there is nothing in the budget for additional drought measures, which are badly needed. We had the regional development output budget cut by 21 per cent, Parks Victoria cut by 4 per cent, our veterans budget cut by 26 per cent, the agriculture budget in a time of drought cut by 4 per cent— you would not believe it—and cuts to the tourism and major events budget of 19 per cent in the budget papers. They are there in black and white. Local government also copped a significant cut at a time when ratepayers are suffering from cost-of-living pressures in this drought period. Drought-affected farmers are facing ruin. This budget should have done the reverse of what it has done. It should have increased funding to local government so that drought-impacted farmers could have been provided with some degree of drought relief. One of the measures we have seen at the moment in relation to drought relief—the support for those families with school-age children under the guise of drought relief—10 per cent of farmers in the electorate have school-age children, so a lot of the drought measures simply are not meeting the targets that they need to meet. They are not getting to our farming communities. The cash handouts for on-farm infrastructure require a co-investment. Now, these

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2391 farmers have been doing it tough enough. They just have not got $5000 or $10 000 lying around to be able to leverage that offer, so many, many of them are not taking it up. I want to make a few comments before I finish on portfolios. As confirmed in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), our veterans budget has been cut by 26 per cent, a massive cut— a huge slap in the face for those who served our country. In a budget that is taxing Victorians more and has borrowings that will double the state’s debt, Labor should not be cutting our veterans budget. Next year, 2020, is a significant year for our veterans and the history of our state and our nation, because it marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. Over 27 000 Australians were killed and a further 23 000 were wounded in action during World War II. In addition, hundreds more were killed and injured in accidents at home. Next year is a very, very significant year in our nation’s history, with the anniversary of World War II ending, and we also have a number of contemporary veterans that require support, so it is not a time to be cutting the veterans budget by a quarter—by 26 per cent. We should be commemorating the end of World War II, which enabled us to enjoy the freedoms that we enjoy today, and we should be looking after those who served our nation. In disability, there are a number of families that are impacted by disability and have those in their family with special needs that will be very disappointed. They were advocating for support in a whole range of areas: social enterprise start-ups to support and boost employment opportunities was a very strong theme that was coming through from community groups; a dedicated fund to remove adults with special needs from aged-care facilities, where they are being inappropriately housed; a fund to address the need to provide respite centres in communities where they currently do not exist; and a 24- hour hotline to assist families who are impacted by autism spectrum disorder. These are all the messages that were coming out of the disability sector. While we transfer over to the NDIS it is a time of change, but there are also requirements on the state to continue to provide support and services in certain areas. These are key areas, and they should have been dealt with. In fishing and boating, a new portfolio, out of PAEC we got more questions that warrant asking than we received answers. Despite committing pre-election to allocate all boat registration and licence fees—$27 million to $30-odd million—back to the sector, the budget only made a commitment for one year to this level. In the out years it drops off to $12 million next year and then nothing the year after. After an additional allocation of $27 million, that should have been reflected in the out years. That was the promise. All of the boat registrations and all of the boat licences were going to be allocated back to that sector. There is no reason why that should not be recorded in the out years. Now, the Premier said he would pick up the tab for all launching and parking fees that were being charged by councils around the bay. Those launching fees and parking fees are to pay for maintenance of boat ramps—the councils themselves say that. What we are yet to find out is whether this government will fund all of the councils in Victoria for their maintenance. When that was asked at PAEC the minister’s response was: ‘That’s subject to a review’. So why do the more wealthy city- based councils get their boat ramps and their maintenance funded while the poorer country councils do not? It is subject to a review. Hobsons Bay and Frankston councils have two boat ramps, and they are going to get funded for maintenance of those boat ramps. My electorate has 24 council boat ramps, yet the maintenance bill for them is going to be subject to a review. So the minister, Ms Pulford in the other place, needs to make sure that if she is going to fund the maintenance of boat ramps, she does it equitably across the state. I will just touch on racing for a few moments, and the Minister for Racing is here at the table. The budget promoted a significant prize money increase for the racing industry. The one area that missed out was the non-TAB clubs and the picnic clubs. Now, I know the argument has been put forth that they had a drink a little while ago, but they are the lifeblood of our rural and regional communities, and if we are going to have government funding prize money increases across the state, it should be across the state. They should get a drink of the state government funds as well. They should not be ignored, those smaller clubs. A lot of them have one or two meetings a year that are very, very

MOTIONS 2392 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 important to the local economy. They rely on prize money to attract horses, because without horses there is no show. Whilst we have increased prize money at metropolitan meetings and mid-week metropolitan meetings, we should have also given a slice of the pie to those smaller country clubs. This is not a good budget for rural and regional Victoria, and I hope that next year’s is far better. Mr TAK (Clarinda) (10:51): I am delighted to rise today to speak on the 2019–20 budget, and what a magnificent budget. First of all I would like to say thank you to the Treasurer, to the Assistant Treasurer and to all those involved for their hard work in developing such a fantastic budget. This is my first budget here in this place, and this is really exciting for me and for the people of Clarinda. This budget is yet another example of the Andrews Labor government delivering on its promise, delivering for the people of Clarinda and delivering for all Victorians. I am extremely proud of the Labor track record of investment in schools and education, and that continues with this budget. As part of the massive $1.8 billion investment in schools around the state, the Victorian budget 2019–20 includes $5.3 million to make sure that students at Huntingdale Primary School, a primary school in my electorate, have the learning space they deserve. I am delighted to see that the budget will deliver a new architecturally designed permanent modular building to replace one of the older buildings at Huntingdale Primary School. The school principal, Ruth Biddle, has been a strong advocate for the building improvements there, and I am very lucky to look forward to visiting Huntingdale Primary School again to see the progress. Huntingdale Primary School is a fantastic school, and I have been delighted to learn about the school’s bilingual education program, which is now widely recognised both in Australia and internationally as a leader in bilingual education. This new building will help to further contribute to the success of the school’s outstanding Japanese bilingual immersion program and to the education of Huntingdale Primary School students more generally. Students and teachers at Clarinda Primary School are also set to benefit from this year’s budget, with the Andrews Labor government delivering $3.04 million towards another new modular building. Congratulations to the Clarinda principal, Robbie Allett. Robbie really is a fierce advocate for his school and his students. I am really happy to see this funding allocated to Clarinda Primary School. This new building will help to continue and build on positive education outcomes. This local school provides a fantastic local school with a real reputation of inclusiveness. The Labor government is also determined to make sure our kids are ready for school, delivering on our commitments to begin the rollout of the universal three-year-old kinder—what an amazing initiative. Thanks to a $882 million budget investment, we will ensure that every three-year-old has access to at least 5 hours per week of subsidised kinder by 2022, increasing to 15 hours per week. This is amazing news for so many young families in the Clarinda electorate and across the state. I have two young boys, Lawson and Mason. They are now five and three, and it was not that long ago that they were going to join kinder. Young families can often struggle with the cost of living, and I have heard from many young parents how they have been forced to cut costs and save to cover fees for three- year-old kinder. On average it costs $5000 a year, and unfortunately I have heard too many stories from residents that their kids miss out altogether. This is the Education State, and now as the state with the subsidised early years no child will miss out. I am very proud of this reform—the biggest reform to kinder ever seen in our state. I am also very proud that students right across the state will have access to the Labor government’s rollout of free dental care at all public primary schools and secondary schools. We are bringing back the dental van. This year’s budget begins the rollout, investing $321.9 million and delivering on our promise. This investment really makes sense. As young parents I remember how difficult it was for my wife, Manette, and I to get time off away from work for dental appointments for the boys. I was running a busy practice and my wife was working in aged care—both really demanding work environments. This investment will save families around $400 a year per child in dental costs as well as saving families the inconvenience of taking time off work for appointments. Once fully rolled out, this initiative will also free up more than 100 000 places in the public dental care system each year.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2393

In addition, there is a further $58 million to expand our school breakfast clubs program and make sure more kids are learning on a full stomach. Building on the existing program, which provides free breakfasts in 500 schools across our state, this investment will see free breakfasts and lunches served up to our students at 1000 primary schools and secondary schools every school day. Over the past month in particular I have really noticed the increasing calls from our community for more parkland, and I am proud that this budget will deliver more space for Clarinda’s kids to explore and for locals to enjoy. This year’s budget provides a major investment of $24.8 million to increase a 355-hectare chain of parks from Warrigal Road in Moorabbin to Braeside Park in Dingley, with walking and bike trails and adventure play areas for kids. The local community and their pets will also have a new space with the Labor government delivering on its promise of a brand-new dog park for Kingston, part of a $5 million statewide investment. With this budget the Labor government will also ensure local sport clubs have the facilities they deserve, and these include the timely $60 000 to upgrade sports lighting at Coatesville Tennis Club. Another election commitment delivered in this budget is the new Bentleigh East ambulance station, a new station that will be built in Bentleigh East to support the life-saving work of paramedics and make sure that patients experiencing life-threatening emergencies get the care they need sooner. This is part of an overall budget package worth $108.8 million. Further to this, in terms of road and rail, this budget will get you where you need to go with a massive suburban transport blitz. The Labor government has kickstarted detailed planning and preconstruction work for the Suburban Rail Loop, the biggest transformation of public transport in Victoria, with 12 new underground stations, including at Cheltenham, Clayton and Monash University. The new rail line will connect every major rail line from the Frankston line to the Werribee line, which is fantastic news for Monash students and for all commuters and residents. My electorate and my community is a truly diverse community and one that I am so proud to represent. In this budget, across the state hundreds of multicultural senior citizens groups will be eligible for a $4000 grant, part of our $3.4 million investment to support the activities and equipment upgrades to strengthen these communities. In Clarinda this is fantastic news for our many multicultural seniors groups, so I am looking forward to hearing about the plans and initiatives these organisations have in moving forward. I am very passionate about representing the elderly members of our community. The elderly residents of the south-east have made countless contributions to— (Time expired) Business interrupted under sessional orders. Questions without notice and ministers statements LABOR PARTY MEMBERS Mr M O’BRIEN (Malvern—Leader of the Opposition) (11:01): My question is to the Premier. Electrical Trades Union Victoria secretary Troy Gray, a close ally of CFMEU secretary John Setka, has threatened to audit Victorian Labor MPs and government ministers for any history of domestic violence allegations. Mr Gray has stated: If people are going to try and do a political hatchet job on a union official then we will be looking to see if people have skeletons in their closet. Why has the Premier failed to stand up to this attempt to blackmail his own government’s members? The SPEAKER: Order! I am not sure this question relates to government business. Ms Allan: No, it doesn’t. Mr M O’BRIEN: On a point of order, Speaker, attempting to blackmail government ministers is clearly government business.

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The SPEAKER: Order! I am happy to allow the Leader of the Opposition to rephrase his question so that it relates to government business. Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Essendon is warned. Mr M O’BRIEN: I am happy to restate the question. Electrical Trades Union Victoria secretary Troy Gray, a close ally of CFMEU secretary John Setka, has threatened to audit Victorian Labor MPs and government ministers for any history of domestic violence allegations. Mr Gray has stated:

If people are going to try and do a political hatchet job on a union official then we will be looking to see if people have skeletons in their closet. Why has the Premier not stood up and defended the integrity of his government and his government ministers against these allegations? The SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition has repeated the question that he asked before. I am going to have to rule that question out of order. MINISTERS STATEMENTS: SUBURBAN RAIL LOOP Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (11:03): I am delighted, absolutely delighted—a little ahead of schedule, like so many of the infrastructure projects we are so proud to deliver—to rise to update the house on the government’s Suburban Rail Loop, the biggest infrastructure project that the nation has ever seen, a fantastic project that will change the way our city and state moves around, operates, functions. This is exactly what is needed: a 90-kilometre rail loop connecting every major train line from Werribee to Frankston, with 12 new stations, taking 200 000 cars off the roads every single day, 20 000 jobs created during construction. It is a big project, Speaker, there is no denying that, and it will take some time to get this project delivered. The first step of course was to commit to the concept and then to commit to providing the planning funding, and that is exactly what we did in this year’s budget. Much like Metro Tunnel, where we committed to simply plan the project, now we are delivering the project, so we have reached that milestone. Very recently I was pleased to be able to report that the registration of interest for the Suburban Rail Loop is now open, much like the airport rail link, where we had a similar registration of interest process. More than 100 firms—not just from Australia, not just from our region but indeed from right throughout the world—registered their interest in delivering that project. Of course that project is a component part of the Suburban Rail Loop, that western section, to go along with the first section, which of course will be between Cheltenham and Box Hill. This is a massive project, one that we proudly begin in the sure and certain knowledge that it is such a big project somebody else will be there to cut the ribbon, but that is the infrastructure leadership we need. It is not about the credit but about getting on and getting things done. That is our culture. That is our record, and that will not be changing. YOUTH JUSTICE CENTRE STAFF Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (11:05): My question is to the Minister for Youth Justice. The Secretary of the Department of Justice and Community Safety said at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) that 100 out of 400 youth justice staff at Malmsbury and Parkville have left in just a one-year period. Staff members are being told to not report being abused by inmates: … because it is too much trouble, they didn’t mean it and we will get them to apologise to you. Why is the government covering up assaults on staff when it is clear they feel so unsafe that one- quarter of them have walked away in just 12 months? There is the quote. QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2395

Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! When the house comes to order. The Leader of the House! Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (11:06): As I explained at PAEC, we have more reporting than ever before on our youth justice custodial assaults. Under your government it was once every year; under our government it is every three months. Again he has not done his homework. I have had two questions, and he has been unprepared both times. You still have not read the Armytage-Ogloff report. You have not read Neil Comrie’s report. Ms Staley: On a point of order, Speaker, one, he should be going through the Chair in his remarks, rather than directed at another member, but also he is debating the question. Could he please come back to answering it. Ms Allan: On the point of order, Speaker, the member for Ripon’s point of order referred to the minister not being relevant to the question that was asked. The question— Members interjecting. Ms Allan: Sorry, no, you did not. It was debating the question. In the content of the question the member for Gembrook talked about reporting and issues of staff reporting and transparency around the youth justice system. The minister was being entirely relevant to the question that was asked. He was not debating the question; he was providing information to the house. And before the member for Ripon gets too excited to defend the member for Gembrook, she should let the minister answer his question. Mr Walsh: On the point of order, Speaker, it was not about reporting. It was about why are they— A member interjected. Mr Walsh: No. Why are they covering up? Why are they telling staff not to report it because it is too much trouble? It is about the cover-up that is going on in the department of justice because 100 out of 400 staff have left in a one-year period. The member for Bendigo East is actually wrong in how she explained it in her point of order. Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left! Mr McGuire: On the point of order, Speaker, the minister was clearly, for the benefit of the house, saying what the reports have been. The question was about a report. He is not debating; he is giving the context and the relevant evidence, and he is factually accurate. There is no point of order. Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! Members on both sides will come to order. Mr Battin: On the point of order, Speaker, the minister is clearly debating. It is not about reporting, it is about the not reporting. It is about the people in the youth justice system that are failing to report because this minister is trying to hide the truth in the youth justice system. Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! Before ruling on the point of order, I should warn the house—I know it is the last question time before a lengthy break in parliamentary sittings—that I will remove members from the chamber under the sessional orders before the house, which means members will be suspended in this question time and probably for the first part of one in a couple of months time. So I ask members not to shout across the chamber, and I warn them they will be removed from the chamber.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS 2396 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

I do uphold the first part of the member for Ripon’s point of order, in that the minister should direct his comments through the Chair and not direct them at other members in this place. I do not uphold the point of order that he was debating the question, but I do ask him not to take the opportunity to attack the opposition while answering a question. Mr CARROLL: Thank you, Speaker. First and foremost I want to say that I support the frontline staff at the youth justice facilities every step of the way. I have been out there and met with them on several occasions. In fact we have got a record recruitment drive. We have had 7000 applications, over 300 new youth justice staff. But more than that, on the back of the recommendations of Neil Comrie we have also rolled out Corrections Victoria’s security and emergency services group. We have the best tactical operations working for our youth justice system above and beyond. As I said at the PAEC meeting, though, we have more recordings and more transparency in our youth justice system that we have ever had before. What surprises me is that the Liberal Party actually does not look up the Productivity Commission’s website, where they would see all the data on all the regulation of the government services when it comes to the youth justice system. They do not— Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! Members have been warned. The member for Essendon can leave the chamber for the period of 1 hour. Member for Essendon withdrew from chamber. The SPEAKER: And there is someone sitting behind the member for Gembrook who should be careful. Mr Battin: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister again is clearly debating. He can talk as much as he likes about the reporting that we are seeing and that they are reporting more. This is solely about— Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! Mr Battin: For the Premier’s interest, the question is about the members within the youth justice system that have been told not to report. And if you are not reporting, it does not go on a website. The SPEAKER: Order! Your point of order is? Mr Battin: It is what we call hidden. Stop hiding the facts. The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The minister has been relevant to the question asked. Mr CARROLL: Thank you. I actually thought we did away with Dorothy Dixers, but it is great to see the opposition have not. Our youth justice system has had $1 billion invested in the first term of the Andrews Labor government. I want to give credit to my predecessor, Minister Mikakos in the other place, because the Armytage-Ogloff review is the blueprint to turning some of the most complex young lives around. And how do you do that? You do that by what the Deputy Premier is doing: you build the Education State in the youth justice system. We are rolling out more programs and more training for our staff than ever before. We have a longer induction period for our— Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party! Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: The member for Warrandyte! Order!

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Mr R Smith: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question. The fact is that under these guys’ watch there have been 38 riots in youth detention centres. A quarter of the staff have left. It is a shambles. The SPEAKER: Order! The member will resume his seat. The minister is being relevant to the question. Mr CARROLL: Thank you, Speaker. I am keen, because we are doing so much for youth justice: 7000 applications, 300 more additional staff. It is wonderful when a former youth minister gets up on his feet who could not remember what the youth unemployment rate was when he was the minister. That is how good he is going. But I am keen— Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! I warn the member for Warrandyte about making frivolous points of order. Mr CARROLL: Thank you very much, Speaker. I am very keen. I have been in the role six months and this is only my second question, so I hope I will get more questions from the shadow minister, particularly about supporting frontline staff, because we know the form he had after Black Saturday. Mr Walsh: On a point of order, Speaker, the minister is debating the question again. If he is actually touting for more questions, perhaps he might like to answer the one he has currently got before he gets any other questions. So I would ask you to bring him back to actually answering the question as to why there is such a cover-up on reporting of youth justice staff, because as the department has told them: ‘It’s just too much trouble, and we’ll get them to apologise to you later’. That is just absurd, and I ask you to bring the minister back to answering the question. The SPEAKER: The minister is being relevant to the question that was framed to him. Mr CARROLL: Thank you, Speaker. There is no cover-up. We are investing more in our youth justice system than ever before. We have done the machinery of government changes from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice and Regulation. We are building a brand-new facility in Cherry Creek, and as we are rolling out the mental health royal commission we are also rolling out mental health beds. If the shadow minister actually goes out to Parkville and meets the staff, like I do on regular occasions, he will see the wonderful work that they are doing— Mr Battin: On a point of order, Speaker, I will be more than pleased to go to Parkville and Malmsbury, but your office has blocked it on three occasions. Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The member for Gembrook! Mr CARROLL: It is good to see he has got an appointment during the break to go out and do some homework, because he needs to do his homework and get on the front foot with more questions—because they are hopeless. (Time expired) Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! I warn members they will be removed from the chamber. Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (11:16): Earlier this week on Neil Mitchell, an anonymous staff member at one of these facilities revealed that people are leaving the workplace because the environment is ‘toxic’ and they feel unsafe. Staff are assaulted by clients daily and they do not feel safe coming to work: Somebody is going to die, and then maybe the government might actually do something. Does someone have to die before the government acts to finally fix the broken youth justice system?

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS 2398 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Mr CARROLL (Niddrie—Minister for Crime Prevention, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Youth Justice, Minister for Victim Support) (11:17): I thank the shadow minister for his question. I did hear that interview, and I want to say, first and foremost, we support the staff every step of the way. In fact it was our government that passed legislation giving youth justice custody officers mandatory reporting, but more than that mandatory additional potential jail time if you assault a youth justice custody officer. We are rolling out security in the emergency services group because we want, on the back of the Neil Comrie report—which the shadow minister still has not read—to give our frontline support staff support every step of the way. We are also boosting Parkville College, because if you look at the international research the way you turn around youth justice is through building more education and investing in the Education State. We know international research says that every person that has finished secondary college and gone on to tertiary education is more than 10 times less likely to go on and commit any further crime. It is why we are making sure our staff have support every step of the way, whether they be teachers or whether they be the youth justice frontline staff. (Time expired) MINISTERS STATEMENTS: PORTABLE LONG SERVICE BENEFITS SCHEME Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:18): I rise to update the house about the commencement of Victoria’s portable long service benefits scheme from 1 July. The Andrews Labor government is making it fairer for people working in security, contract cleaning and community services by giving them the portable long service benefits that they deserve—and in fact that many in our community have come to accept as a given. Under these new laws, workers will be entitled to new long service leave after working for seven years in their industry, irrespective of the number of employers that they have worked for over that time. A parliamentary committee found that workers in these industries often did the same work in the same place for many years without qualifying for long service entitlements. The new laws will give hardworking Victorians the same long service entitlements that the rest of us really do take for granted. The Portable Long Service Benefits Authority, which is headquartered in Bendigo and employs more than 30 people, is responsible for administering the scheme and ensuring compliance with Victorian businesses, which have from 1 July to 30 September to register for the scheme. These reforms are expected to benefit about 100 000 people in the community services sector, about 35 000 in the security sector and about 20 000 in the cleaning sector. These are people who are missing out on long service leave and important family time through no fault of their own. Not only is the Andrews government making long service leave portable for more Victorians but we have introduced Victoria’s first labour hire licensing scheme. We are leading the way in responding to the challenges of the gig economy with Australia’s first inquiry into the on-demand workforce. Unlike the party of WorkChoices, the Andrews Labor government believes that Victorians deserve a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work. We are not just saying that—we are getting the job done with some of the biggest reforms in workplace relations. GOLD ROYALTY Ms STALEY (Ripon) (11:20): My question is to the Treasurer. I refer to an article in the Ballarat Courier which quotes the member for Buninyong and says talks are taking place between the member for Buninyong and mining bosses to ‘resolve the fallout from the newly announced gold tax’. What fallout needs to be resolved? Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:20): I thank the member for her question. What fallout needs to be resolved? I suppose it will not come as an earthshattering revelation that certain sections of the industry do not think they should actually have to pay for the gold that the state of Victoria owns. Mr M O’Brien interjected.

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2399

Mr PALLAS: Of course, as the Leader of the Opposition notes, there are many sections of the industry that see it as their responsibility. We were the last state in Australia to put in place a royalty on gold, but the second-last jurisdiction in the nation to put in place a royalty on gold was Western Australia, and they did that in the late 1990s. It was a Liberal government that did it—the Court government. We note now that in Western Australia we are seeing some of the biggest gold strikes being found and disclosed to the market in the nation’s history. What this demonstrates is that the state is extracting value for the taxpayer, for the public. There are sections of the industry who would prefer not to pay this royalty, can I be clear about that. They would prefer the state to continue to give them gold for free. I do not see that as necessarily a good thing for the state of Victoria, and I do not think it is necessarily a good thing for any business model to continue to assume that you base your industry and your employment on the principle of getting free stuff. As a basic principle, when you run a business your input costs should be appropriately acknowledged. As a consequence, we will meet with sections of the industry who want to know how these arrangements will apply. Of course we will, because we want to make doing business in this state as efficient and effective as possible. But we are not doing it in circumstances where we are effectively giving an unfair advantage to this industry. What we are doing is making sure that regional Victoria right across the board gets the best advantage when it comes to employing. That is why we have got the lowest regional unemployment rate on record, because we have driven down and continue to drive down payroll tax costs, such that by the end of this term of office—by 2022—payroll tax rates will be 25 per cent of the metropolitan rate. We are creating jobs and we are making sure that Victorians get value for money for their assets. Ms STALEY (Ripon) (11:23): What role has the Treasurer given the member for Buninyong to renegotiate the implementation of the gold royalty announced in the budget? Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:24): Can I assure you that every member of this government is responsive to their community. They are also a clear and transparent demonstration of the fact that they work hard for their communities and they make sure their communities have a government that is attentive and responsive to the needs of industry. The member for Buninyong and every other member of this government will continue their hard work to make sure that Victorians get value for money, and the member for Buninyong is a vital and valued member of our team. We will continue to respond to any concerns they have or their communities have, but I tell you what we will not be doing: we will not be giving away free stuff as a basis under which a business model is developed. MINISTERS STATEMENTS: RENEWABLE ENERGY Ms D’AMBROSIO (Mill Park—Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change, Minister for Solar Homes) (11:25): Last Friday I was delighted to attend the official opening of the Gannawarra battery and solar farm just outside Kerang. This is the largest integrated battery and solar farm in the country, storing 100 per cent renewable energy that can be injected into the grid at key times. The battery is also the second biggest Tesla installation in the country and among the largest of its kind in the world. This has been delivered because of our government’s energy storage initiative. This initiative provided $25 million to install two large batteries in regional Victoria. These batteries play a vital role in stabilising our power system and providing additional power when it is needed. Both of these batteries have been operating since last summer and are proving invaluable, especially during days of extreme heat. These projects are also vital to meeting our ambitious renewable energy target of 50 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2030. This is more than 11 000 jobs. These batteries do not just give us the energy security that we need—they are also driving much- needed investment in rural areas. For example, they are providing an ongoing boost to the rate base of local councils. The Gannawarra shire CEO and mayor are brimming with confidence in terms of what

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS 2400 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 these projects can actually bring to their community. They are providing jobs. I was absolutely delighted to catch up with Greg and Faye Fowler. Their family has owned the farm that hosts this facility for more than 100 years. They are absolutely delighted with what this project means for them in securing their income and retirement plans. We have actually said that we would deliver more renewable energy to Victorians, create more jobs, reduce bills and reduce emissions, and that is exactly what we are doing. NET DEBT Ms STALEY (Ripon) (11:27): My question is to the Treasurer. Victoria is set to have net debt in 2022–23 of $54.9 billion. Can the Treasurer guarantee Victoria’s net debt will not exceed this figure? Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:27): Unlike those opposite, who basically did nothing for four years but managed to double state debt— Mr Andrews: Where did that money go? Mr PALLAS: We don’t know where the money went, Premier. We do not know because they did not do anything with it, but they did manage to double debt—they did manage that. In fact if you look at the end of this financial year, at the end of the current financial year, our debts in absolute terms are broadly the same as those that we inherited from those opposite—in absolute terms. That is despite the fact that the Victorian economy has grown by close to $50 billion over that time. Basically what we do know is that our investments and our strategies around utilising debt come at a time when interest rates are the lowest they have ever been and when the community are crying out for a government that is prepared to lead and deliver, and that is exactly what we are doing. We are borrowing to build. Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, the Treasurer, who loves to give one-word answers, has been asked a very specific question: will he guarantee that the debt figure for 2022–23 will not exceed the budget estimate of $54.9 billion? I ask you to stop him debating the question and answer it. The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer is allowed to set the context of his answer, but he should come to answering the question. Mr PALLAS: We are not the only state of course that is using its capacity to borrow to build. We know the South Australian Treasurer was only out yesterday— Members interjecting. Mr PALLAS: He happens to be on your side of the political spectrum, but they are all copying Victoria because they all want to be part of the outstanding success of the fastest growing economy in the nation, the fastest employment market in the nation. So we have got South Australia, we have got Tasmania, we have got New South Wales— Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, the question related to Victoria, not other states, and the Treasurer’s own budget forecast, and he was asked to guarantee that that figure of $54.9 billion in 2022–23 will not be exceeded. I ask you to bring him back to answering the question, not debating it. The SPEAKER: The Treasurer will come back to answering the question. Mr PALLAS: If the Leader of the Opposition had confidence in the question being put by his shadow Treasurer, perhaps he would let her prosecute the case. Put simply, when we went to the last election we said quite directly to the Victorian people, ‘We will see debt as a percentage of GSP rise progressively to 12 per cent’, and it will not be there within the 2022 period. That is our commitment. We will continue to produce a track on that debt projection as we go forward, but we will also continue

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2401 to cut ribbons on projects that the people of Victoria authorised us to get on and deliver because through these arrangements and in this budget we have been able to demonstrate to the Victorian people that we can fully fund North East Link, that we can make our contribution to the Melbourne Airport rail link and of course the extra 25 level crossings. Mr M O’Brien: On a point of order, Speaker, in the last 27 seconds there is room for a yes or no answer to the question: will he guarantee that net debt will not exceed $54.9 billion in 2022–23? If the Treasurer has any confidence in his own budget, he should be able to stand up here and say yes and give that guarantee. The SPEAKER: Order! Treasurer was relevant to the question. Mr PALLAS: It is a facile question because, quite frankly, who knows what the size of gross state product will be? Our economy will continue to grow. What I can assure the member is that our commitment to the Victorian people that debt will not exceed 12 per cent of GSP will be honoured. Members interjecting. Ms STALEY (Ripon) (11:31): That was a 3-minute no; yes, I think so. Victoria’s debt of $54.9 billion will be $16.3 billion more than New South Wales’s debt in 2022–23. Victoria has the second largest state economy yet will have the highest amount of debt. Is this because Labor cannot manage money? Mr PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (11:32): I thank the member for her question. I think she reached the zenith of her question- asking at the time she was pursuing gold, so this has come down a fair way, I have to got say. Our position as a state is that we sought authority from the Victorian people to increase debt to 12 per cent of gross state product, and we are doing exactly that. We have funded these vital projects and we are getting on and delivering them. Can I say that the state’s debt as a percentage of debt to revenue is in the mid-50s—in fact 53 per cent. It is considerably lower than the average of all other states, which is in the mid-80s. New South Wales, who you might mention have a debt lower than us in their general sector, have a projection that is going much higher, much quicker towards the end of the forward estimates. So we are managing debt responsibly and we are growing the fastest growing economy in the nation. MINISTERS STATEMENTS: RENTAL REFORMS Ms KAIROUZ (Kororoit—Minister for Consumer Affairs, Gaming and Liquor Regulation, Minister for Suburban Development) (11:33): Speaker, I rise to update the house on the rollout of the Andrews Labor government’s rental reforms. Last year we passed a package of more than 130 reforms to improve the rights of the one in four Victorians who rent. The landmark laws were the biggest change to the Residential Tenancies Act since it was implemented two decades ago. I am pleased to announce that two key reforms in this package commenced this week. From yesterday, rent increases can only occur once every 12 months. The red book renting guide can now be provided to tenants in digital form. Previously the guide, which summarises the rights and duties of the tenant and landlord, was only provided in hard copy. I am pleased to advise that the 130 reforms are being rolled out in stages. This year the provisions strengthening the rights of caravan and residential park residents commenced. Residents can now be awarded compensation in the event of a park closure. Provisions enabling long-term leases for more than five years commenced this year. And our inaugural commissioner for residential tenancies, Dr Heather Holst, was appointed last year. But there is more to do. Over the next 12 months we will implement the remaining reforms to strengthen the rights of Victorian renters. We will implement minimum standards in rental properties,

QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE AND MINISTERS STATEMENTS 2402 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 requiring functioning stoves, heating and deadlocks. We will crack down on rental bidding. We will give renters the right to make minor modifications, and protections for pet owners will be strengthened. We will also make it quicker for renters to get their bond back. Tenants will be able to apply for the release of the bond without written consent from their landlord. And we will implement key recommendations from the Royal Commission into Family Violence by allowing rental agreements to be terminated in situations of family violence. We have said that we will make renting fairer, and that is exactly what we are doing. I look forward to continuing to update the house as we roll out these once-in-a-generation reforms and make renting fairer for Victorians. PORT CONTAINER TAX Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (11:35): My question is to the Minister for Ports. As reported in the Herald Sun, a new $15 tax will be imposed on every container imported through the port of Melbourne for the life of the lease. On current container numbers this tax would raise nearly $1 billion. What is the government’s justification for imposing yet another new tax on Victorians? Ms HORNE (Williamstown—Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Public Transport) (11:36): I would like to thank the member for her question, because I feel it was fairly adequately covered during the recent Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, where I explained that this is a government that values getting trucks off local streets and making sure that we have got an on-dock solution at our port, which is why we built that requirement into the lease of the port of Melbourne. What the government is currently doing is we have got a proposal in front of us from the port of Melbourne. We are doing our due diligence on that before we make a decision on what that looks like. Ms BRITNELL (South-West Coast) (11:37): Importers say they will have to pass the increased cost of Labor’s new container tax onto consumers. Fascinating as it is that the minister can see the port from her house, why is the government so insensitive to cost-of-living pressures on families that it is now proposing a new $1 billion tax on every consumer item that passes through the port of Melbourne? Ms HORNE (Williamstown—Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Public Transport) (11:37): I am sorry, I— Members interjecting. The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier and the member for Bayswater! The Minister for Ports has the call. Ms HORNE: Thank you very much, Speaker. I am not entirely sure how much more clear I need to make it that this is something that our government has before us. It is something we are considering. There has been no decision made. MINISTERS STATEMENTS: SCHOOL FUNDING Mr MERLINO (Monbulk—Minister for Education) (11:38): I rise to update the house on school— Members interjecting. Mr MERLINO: I will be nice—kind of nice. I rise to update the house on school funding arrangements. Last week I confirmed that Victoria has signed on to a long-term agreement with the federal government— A member interjected. Mr MERLINO: Absolutely begrudgingly. Whilst it was not what we were fighting for, it does provide funding certainty for our schools. But there continues to be a fundamental and illogical unfairness to the federal government’s funding model. The Morrison government and their cheer

CONSTITUENCY QUESTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2403 squad opposite think it is okay to fund public school kids less than private school kids. That is their position. Now, we make no apologies for fighting for a better deal, and I want to assure Victorians that we will not stop advocating for equality and fairness for all students at all our schools. We signed on to this five-year agreement because we were simply not prepared to put at risk all commonwealth funding not flowing onto Victorian schools. But significantly, as part of our deal the Andrews Labor government is delivering on our promise to Victorian schools. We have said that we will increase funding to 75 per cent of the schooling resource standard over the next decade, and that is exactly what we will do. What this means is that under this agreement—$7 billion in additional state funding, over 2018 levels, over the five years of this agreement—there is more support for our schools, for our teachers and for our students. Think on the last four and half years: GPs and mental health practitioners in our schools; Head Start apprenticeships; school breakfast clubs; Camps, Sports and Excursions Fund; 3000 learning specialists. The community can trust a Labor government to deliver on our schools for all Victorians. Constituency questions EILDON ELECTORATE Ms McLEISH (Eildon) (11:41): (823) I have a question for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. The issue of hooning and car racing activity at Mount Donna Buang has been a concern of locals for some time. Parks Victoria manages the mountain and the car park. Will the minister ensure that Parks Victoria plays a lead role in addressing the concerns and implementing appropriate treatments? In March I attended a meeting of concerned stakeholders, which included government agencies. Everybody was disappointed that no-one from Parks Victoria attended. In addition, I have written to the minister and former minister about the installation of security cameras in the area. This is a treatment that the minister has looked on quite favourably. No action has been taken. I would urge the minister, as part of this review looking into what they can do to fix this mess up there, that they consider the installation of securities cameras as well. CARRUM ELECTORATE Ms KILKENNY (Carrum) (11:42): (824) My question is for the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Since August 2018, 32 000 domestic solar rebates have been delivered to households across Victoria. This is an incredible take-up and is helping to deliver hundreds of dollars of savings for Victorian households, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create many new jobs in the renewable energy sector. Minister, constituents in my electorate want to know how they can participate in the next phase of the Solar Homes package which rolls out from 1 July. LOWAN ELECTORATE Ms KEALY (Lowan) (11:42): (825) My question is to the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, and it is great to see him at the table at the moment. The information I seek is why the minister refused a request to provide an additional allocation of Supporting Accommodation for Vulnerable Victorians Initiative (SAVVI) funding of $180 000 to support 80 new pension-level supported residential service beds in Bendigo, an area which currently has a substantially low allocation of only 29 pension-level SRS beds and a significant waiting list. Many organisations in Bendigo that support people with mental illness and other special needs who are at risk of homelessness have called for additional pension-level SRS beds. They have reached out to Kallara Care, a service currently operating similar services in Ballarat, to ask them to help address this need. Kallara Care Ballarat is the nearest pension-level SRS to my electorate of Lowan and provides support for my constituents. Following the minister’s refusal to provide additional SAVVI funding for Bendigo, the minister indicated that he would transfer funding from the Ballarat service should that facility close, meaning that community would lose an essential housing service. Both services need to be funded immediately, so I ask the minister why he has refused to do so.

CONSTITUENCY QUESTIONS 2404 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

BASS ELECTORATE Ms CRUGNALE (Bass) (11:43): (826) My question is to the Minister for Energy, Environment and Climate Change. Regarding a whole-of-government response, budget allocation and coordinated approach, my question is in three parts. Are there cross-agency discussions within the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning and also with Regional Roads Victoria and Emergency Management Victoria to address coastal erosion, climate change adaptation and asset protection not just in Bass but statewide? What is being planned in the short, medium and long term to address the impacts of climate change in terms of coastal erosion on the Bass Coast, particularly for the townships of Inverloch, East Cowes, Jam Jerrup and Grantville? What is the direction received in what the $1.5 million federal government commitment to address erosion will look like on the ground? Described as the most aggressive erosion in the state, areas in Inverloch have lost 33 metres since 2012 and a section of the Bunurong coastal road is now 5 metres from the Bass Strait. Thank you, Minister, for coming to Inverloch recently and seeing firsthand the extent of the erosion. WARRANDYTE ELECTORATE Mr R SMITH (Warrandyte) (11:45): (827) My question today is directed to the Minister for Public Transport. Donvale Christian College has again contacted me to urge the minister to reconsider her denial with regard to allowing a second bus service at both drop-off and pick-up times from the college to Nunawading station. The current Transdev bus is constantly running at or above capacity and leaving upwards of 30 students stranded at the college, forcing students to use taxis or Ubers to get home, adding significant costs to parents. Transdev officials have met with Donvale Christian College, witnessed firsthand the overflow of the current service and agreed that a second bus is sorely needed for the college. My question to the minister is when will she direct Public Transport Victoria to authorise this additional bus service for Donvale Christian College so the students can get to and from school. BAYSWATER ELECTORATE Mr TAYLOR (Bayswater) (11:45): (828) The constituency question I wish to raise today is for the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events. I ask the minister to please provide me with information on the benefits that the $83 million commitment to the State Basketball Centre will bring to sport in the outer east, a project keenly anticipated by my constituents. Late last year I was so pleased to see the Premier, the previous Minister for Sport and, perhaps most importantly, Aussie basketball legend the one and only Lauren Jackson at the State Basketball Centre in Knox to announce that a re-elected Labor government would deliver this funding. And this government did exactly as we said we would do by delivering funding in this year’s surplus budget for the State Basketball Centre—what a slam dunk that is for local basketball. Whenever I am at my local schools I like to ask the students which sport they play, and time and time again basketball will always see dozens of hands thrown up into the air. They cannot wait to see this brand-new state-of-the-art facility take shape—make no mistake. It is clear this project will completely transform sport not just in our community in the east but across our state. It will cement Victoria’s place as the premier place for sport in Australia. I know my community would love to know information on just what benefits and facilities will be provided by the state government’s commitment to the State Basketball Centre. I thank the minister for his consideration on this question and for the work he does to promote local grassroots sport in our great state. BRUNSWICK ELECTORATE Dr READ (Brunswick) (11:46): (829) My question is to the Minister for Transport Infrastructure. The Upfield Corridor Coalition is a community group that has come together to promote a shared vision for the elevated rail planned for a 2-kilometre stretch from Moreland Road to Bell Street, half of which sits in my electorate. This group is calling for the preservation of heritage structures and parkland and trees. They want access to Moreland station from both sides of Moreland Road, which could easily be achieved, for example, if the station sits above the road. And they want an elevated

CONSTITUENCY QUESTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2405 veloway for bikes, and separate paths for walkers and bikes at ground level, with pedestrian priority at traffic lights. Minister, which of these things can the community expect, from the Level Crossing Removal Project along the Upfield line? And will you ensure that the Upfield coalition has some meaningful input into the LXRP on this line? NORTHCOTE ELECTORATE Ms THEOPHANOUS (Northcote) (11:47): (830) My question is for the Minister for Housing. The Northcote electorate will have two public housing locations redeveloped under the public housing renewal program: Walker Street in Northcote and at Preston. I visited the Walker Street estate recently and was welcomed into the home of William, who has lived there with his family for many years. It was a rainy day, but I was struck by how proud William was of his home. Metaphorically it was a warm place, but there was no mistaking that the temperature was cold. These building are more than 50 years old and well below our modern standards of comfort. The bones of the building are cold, but residents make do. Despite the lack of proper heating and cooling, despite no disability access, residents make do. We can do so much better for public housing tenants like William. The public housing renewal program is an opportunity to do better. But there is a vocal minority with a political agenda rather than a genuine regard for public housing tenants or the wider community. They peddle misinformation and irresponsibly prey on the vulnerability of tenants. Minister, for the sake of clarity, can you outline the key components of the renewal at Walker Street and the risks to the success of the program? GEMBROOK ELECTORATE Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (11:48): (831) My constituency question is to the Minister for Roads. On many occasions I have raised with the government and the minister the great road congestion in the Gembrook electorate, especially along the Princes Highway. Despite the many occasions the Minister for Roads has stated that VicRoads constantly reviews the need for road upgrades, nothing has occurred and it has been left to the federal coalition government to invest in intersection-free upgrades on this stretch of road. The congestion on the Princes Highway is getting worse each day and cars are at a standstill during peak times between the Berwick off-ramp and the Monash, peaking at Beaconsfield and continuing down the highway to Officer. This leaves some residents for whom normally this would be at 10-minute commute taking up to an hour. What are the government’s plans to elevate the growing road congestion on the Princes Highway, especially at Beaconsfield, and what is the time line for the government’s action on this serious road congestion issue facing thousands of constituents in my electorate? BOX HILL ELECTORATE Mr HAMER (Box Hill) (11:49): (832) My constituency question is for the Deputy Premier in his capacity as Minister for Education. My question is: what opportunities will there be for the Koonung Secondary College school community to get involved in the exciting rebuilding project that was announced in this year’s state budget? The $6.05 million investment made available in the budget will enable the tired main classroom wing to be demolished and rebuilt, giving local students the best possible learning facilities. This upgrade has been talked about for years, and only an Andrews Labor government will deliver it. Staff, students and parents were rapt that the Deputy Premier was able to visit the school last week to talk about this significant investment—an investment that has only come about as a result of strong and vocal advocacy over a long period by past and present school staff, principals and parents and supportive members of the community. Every student deserves access to modern school facilities, and that is what this project is going to deliver for the community. The modern learning spaces that will be built as part of this investment will help teachers teach and help students reach their full potential. Current staff, students and parents and even a few ex-staff, students and parents are keen to provide input and eager to know how they can get involved.

MOTIONS 2406 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Motions BUDGET PAPERS 2019–20 Debate resumed. Mr TAK (Clarinda) (11:50): I am very passionate about representing the elderly members of our community. The older residents of the south-east have made countless contributions to our state’s rich culture, identity and history. Later in life everyone should live with dignity and comfort, and families should also have peace of mind knowing that their loved ones are receiving appropriate care. I have come across many older residents who are very reluctant to consider residential aged-care services due to language and cultural barriers. This government acknowledges that this needs to change. For example, there are more than 16 000 Chinese Victorians aged over 70 in metropolitan Melbourne. This will increase to over 20 000 by 2021. Using the federal government formula, the Chinese Victorian community currently require more than 1000 residential aged-care beds, and by 2021 this will be more than 1500. However, currently the number of Chinese ethnospecific beds available in Melbourne is less than 200. We can do better. So again, I am delighted to see that up to $7.25 million has been committed towards purchasing land for a new Chinese aged-care facility, recognising the large Chinese community in Melbourne, and also a one-off grant of $500 000 to upgrade facilities at the On Luck Chinese Nursing Home in Donvale, which provides residential aged care to the Chinese community. For the Indian community, up to $14.5 million has been committed to purchase land for two new Indian aged-care facilities in Melbourne’s west and south-east, recognising the large Indian communities in these areas and ensuring residents can remain close to their families. Community consultation and identification of possible land for the south-east site will commence later this year. Further recognising our community’s proud diversity, the Labor government is investing $500 000 towards a new multipurpose Indian community centre in Monash. This funding, provided to the Sankat Mochan Samiti Temple, will support the community to preserve and share their culture and traditions in a space that they can improve and make their own. I know firsthand the importance of these spaces. For me, the temple is not only a place of worship but also a place to share food, culture and language and a place to learn from each other. Most importantly it is a place of belonging. So I am delighted to see these funds dedicated to building and maintaining our multicultural infrastructure. I know that the member for Oakleigh has been a strong advocate for this funding. Congratulations to Dr Sunila Shrivastava and other friends at Sankat Mochan Samiti. I am really looking forward to this new dedicated space where Victorians of Indian heritage can come together and proudly celebrate their culture and traditions. Lastly, with Victoria’s increasing cultural diversity, community language schools have never been more important. I commend the government for delivering on its $7.5 million commitment to community language schools to meet the increasing demand in my electorate and across the state. There are more than 160 accredited community language schools across Victoria that deliver language education in over 40 languages to 36 000 school-age children across the state. In an Australian first, funding is being delivered to expand community language schools to early childhood and preschool- age children, giving around 2000 of our youngest Victorians access to the program—a truly wonderful initiative. This funding will make sure that our language school teachers get the support they need, with a boost for professional development, training and administration services. Community language schools offer programs outside mainstream school hours—like after hours or on the weekends—and help students to remain connected to their culture and heritage. There are several wonderful community language schools in my electorate, with many classes operating out of Westall Secondary College every Saturday and Sunday. With this funding, more Victorian students will get the support they need to learn their mother tongue and connect with their heritage.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2407

So this is a fantastic budget—a budget that delivers for the people of Clarinda and a budget that delivers for all Victorians. I commend it to the house. Mr RIORDAN (Polwarth) (11:56): I rise today to add my contribution to this country-less 2019– 20 Victorian state budget. I had the good fortune to work with some of the members in this chamber, and I see this morning that they have decided to join us to hear my contribution on this year’s budget. I had the privilege of working with those people during the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) hearings, where I got to forensically analyse the set of documents that were dished up to the community this year. For those of us in the country with many, many clear priorities—certainly my six local shires have put a lot of effort into lobbying and campaigning—it was absolutely devastating to see that almost absolutely nothing was delivered in any way, shape or form to rural and regional Victoria, and in particular the wonderful seat of Polwarth. I see the member for Mordialloc over there grinning away. He trumpeted endlessly during his contributions at PAEC about dog parks. In communities like mine we see that this government’s solution to the need for road repairs is to lower speed limits to 40 kilometres an hour rather than investing in roads, and their approach is to leave roadside vegetation unkempt to become a terrible, terrible fire hazard, yet this government is proud of the fact that they are pork-barrelling in the city with dog parks. They are certainly investing in trains and level crossing removals—sure, that is great for Melbourne—but they have forgotten about country Victoria. The big take-home item on this budget was that only 4 per cent of infrastructure funding is going into rural and regional Victoria. It is 25 per cent of the population. There is almost nothing going back out to the regions. That is an interesting way to view this budget, because we have heard a lot even in recent days about the growth of tourism. It is being led by rural and regional Victoria. In particular the seat of Polwarth is famed for the Great Ocean Road and the Twelve Apostles, one of the most significant tourist regions in the area, and yet this government was unable to do anything to support that in my electorate. For example, the Great Ocean Road—we have heard endlessly about that. We have got endless commitments to talk about things, to talk about action, to put funding towards much-needed road upgrades that just do not happen. A classic example is the one that was nearly three budgets ago for some passing lanes—not road upgrades, not safer roads or better roads but just some simple passing lanes—on the important Forrest to Apollo Bay road, which carries thousands of people on an annual basis and on a daily basis, hundreds of cars of visitors and locals alike. It was announced in 2016. In 2017 they finally get some tenders together—they still have not pulled the tenders in—and here we are halfway through 2019 and there is talk of a basic road upgrade from three years ago, still not delivered. We have a budget this year where I think one of the very few items we could see was a paltry $1.5 million given for a Great Ocean Road authority. Now, a Great Ocean Road authority has been on the local agenda in Polwarth now for quite some time, and that is about trying to coordinate and make the most of Great Ocean Road tourism. It is about trying to maximise public access and maximise the tourism benefit not only for the state but most importantly for the regions so locals get the benefit, because the terrible statistic coming out of the tourism boom is that as little as 68 cents per visitor is actually kept in the region while the rest of it is benefiting here in Melbourne. Why is that? It is because there is not the infrastructure, there are not the mechanisms in place, so that the local communities can benefit from the literally millions of people a year that travel through that region. That is a real shame. This budget once again has done a little bit of window-dressing—$1.5 million to write some more reports and coordinate a few more meetings of Melbourne-based bureaucrats who come down and spend a long lunch on the Great Ocean Road to talk about more things that they might be able to do. What we need in our area is real action on this particular problem, because it is one that is close to the heart of many of the people in our region. Moving from the coast, where we have seen that this great tourism industry has been ignored and overlooked by this government in this budget, inland to where agriculture is the most important thing,

MOTIONS 2408 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 and we raised this in question time today—that is, about the way our port is being handled. There is nothing in port development and in fact only talk of more costs and more charges on our exports out of our ports in Victoria. That is a real shame because that comes straight out of the pockets of the farmers. It is straight out of the pockets of local communities who that extra income would have gone to. Instead that will get diverted through a potential $15 increased charge on port fees that will come through, and that will absolutely cost our local communities and be a real disincentive for local farmers and exporters. And of course it will be added on containers on the way in as well. During the PAEC hearings the big revelation of course was this government’s obsession with trying to find more money for more projects in Melbourne. Where have they looked to get some of that funding? Well, we know that WorkCover and the Transport Accident Commission (TAC) were the two big agencies hit. My electorate is full of small business owners and people that have multiple, multiple registrations and vehicles. An average farmer will have utes, trailers, trucks, tractors, and be paying registration fees for all. The many, many small businesses—plumbers, builders, right across— are all paying both WorkCover fees and TAC fees on their registration. Guess what this government has decided to do? They have said, ‘Hang on a minute, you’ve actually all paid too much. We’ve got too much money in the till there, so what we’re going to do is take it out. We’re not giving it back to you, the small business who has paid it to keep your workers safe; we’re not giving it back to you, drivers, who are paying it for insurance so that you’re covered on the roads. No, we’re going to rip it out of those agencies and we’re going to give it back to big business in Melbourne to pay for tunnels and pay for rail crossing removals’. So once again country people are having their funds taken from them and given to Melbourne, and that is a real shame in this budget. Of course this was highlighted even further on an issue that is very close to my heart, and that is the wire rope barrier rollout that this government continues to support, and misleadingly they have continued to tell people that the wire rope barriers are about saving lives, keeping country roads safer. Country people are not being bluffed by that, and they know that because this year alone the road toll is up 70 per cent or 80 per cent in country Victoria, despite the billions of dollars that this government has diverted from road maintenance and other road safety measures into one particular technology. But what was revealed at PAEC was not only is that happening but they have decided to take more money from roadside maintenance, so that is going to be fewer roadsides mowed and maintained, it is going to be fewer potholes fixed, fewer edges fixed. Why is that? It is because not only are they taking a heap of money from the TAC to build roads and bridges in Melbourne but they are going to take the money out of road maintenance to help look after the wire rope barriers that they have already put in. The government wants us in country Victoria to believe that they were hit 3500 times last year and that has saved lives. Well, the statistics tell us that has not saved lives, but what they have told us is that 3500 extra bits of maintenance have been done and prioritised over and above what country people know is important, and that is potholes, road surfaces, edges and, most importantly, dangerous intersections. Absolutely nothing has been done for that. Another crying shame has been the state of our schools in country Victoria. I have had one school that got a little bit of money at Mortlake for some asbestos removal. I think in an electorate like mine I have nearly 65 schools across my area, and school after school I go into has big yellow strips across them, ‘Full of asbestos’, ‘Can’t go there’ ‘Don’t touch this room’. This is important. This government has made much of the fact that it is going to do something about this, and yet it is quite happy to let country schools in my area have that. We have the terrible example of the Winchelsea Primary School, who got a small grant—from the federal government in fact it was—to make an improvement. It was to upgrade their library to make it a multipurpose learning centre for the 150-odd children at that school. But what did they find out? That all the money that they got for that improvement had to go into asbestos removal first, leaving them not enough funds to complete the renovation that they wanted. They got zero sympathy and zero support from this government on that. So the hard work of the parents committee and from the administration of that school has gone into funding a priority that

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2409 this government said it had as a priority and was going to do, but instead it has come at the cost of an upgraded library and multipurpose learning centre for those young people. We also heard through the PAEC hearings on one hand about this government’s commitment to local content but on the other hand it is then completely turning a blind eye to it. The one that really struck home to me, and I know it is one that will be really important to the people of Polwarth, is the fact that this government does not take tendering seriously and it does not take holding people that it does deals with to account. We have heard of the big-ticket items where the government made much of its 93 per cent local content on steel but now is sort of is wavering somewhere around 80 per cent, but most importantly they revealed to the community that they were not going to hold anyone to account for that lack of management. But the one that would really bite home to many people in my electorate is something as simple as the baby bundle commitment from this government. They did not put a tender out for that. It was a $3 million distribution contract that they just awarded to somebody, and we do not know how they got that because no-one knows how they got that. It turns out it has gone to a New South Wales company. So this is just sort of frittering money around, not looking at the best way it can benefit Victoria. As I said at PAEC, there is no shortage of small businesses and businesses certainly in regional Victoria that were capable of distributing packages to new mums, but it is also the fact that this government did not care enough to make sure that happened. That was a great disappointment in this budget—that we are throwing good money after bad. We are giving it away to businesses overseas and interstate without thinking and working more proactively with local businesses and certainly not local businesses in my community—transport and logistics is the third largest business by turnover in a region like mine. Another disappointment is the way the government is handling its Solar Homes rollout, and the reason I raise that is in country areas, where people are keen to take advantage of this, the government has not thought through the mechanics enough. I have already been contacted by many constituents who cannot access this free money from the government because there is not the capacity in their powerlines. Powerline capacity is a big issue in rural and regional Victoria, and it is one that this government does not take seriously. Whether it is connecting up renewable energy, whether it is trying to access the advantages of solar power to your own home, this government is not making it fair and accessible for all Victorians. So we saw in this budget nothing allocated for the improvement and the safety of power pole infrastructure. We had a report released by Energy Safe Victoria at around the time of the budget which highlights a huge, critical shortage in the way this government is helping plan for power pole infrastructure and about how this government plans to keep Victorians safe. We had the terrible example in February last year, on St Patrick’s Day, when a whole swathe of my electorate was burnt out because of failing, crippled, old, archaic power pole infrastructure. The report has been done, and at this rate there is a replacement rate of around 2200 power poles per annum, but the report itself clearly identifies there needs to be at least 6500. The only way that is going to happen going forward is if this government takes that type of infrastructure seriously and starts to commit and plan and work with the necessary companies to make sure that not only have we got the renewable energy that people want into the future but we also have the infrastructure in place to transmit that renewable energy around. At the moment there is no clear plan and there is no clear vision. This budget certainly does nothing to allow people access to their infrastructure and it also does nothing for the people that are currently living with the existing infrastructure so they can sleep safely and assuredly at night knowing that they are not going to get burnt out. Certainly while we have power pole infrastructure that predates the Olympics in 1956 littered right throughout country Victoria, while we have that situation in place with no plan to fix it, people are feeling unsafe. Certainly people in my electorate, in Polwarth in western Victoria, are not comfortable or happy with this government about its complete denial of this as a problem.

MOTIONS 2410 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Finally, I wish to say that there is much talk about this government’s role with the environment and the way it cares. We saw, for example, that there just was no commitment in this budget or by this government to look after our coastal areas. Unfortunately the whole issue of coastal erosion and coastal management was once again ignored in this budget also. The big disappointment is that the harbour down at Apollo Bay, which is a really important and crucial port access and a safe port for the whole state of Victoria but importantly for the fishing community down there and tourism, just has not received the support that it needs to keep it a viable and functioning port. Once again it is that falling infrastructure, that lack of commitment to infrastructure outside of metropolitan Melbourne. Only 4 per cent was allocated outside of Melbourne, and that is really taking a toll on the viability of rural and regional Victoria. Mr TAYLOR (Bayswater) (12:11): What a great honour it is to stand here and speak on this motion, on a budget which—and wait for it—delivers for all Victorians. How good is it? It is great to be here as part of the Andrews Labor government team at the age of just 27—and part of its fifth budget. It is a special moment; it truly is. Normally I would not get into my age or numbers, but on this occasion I want to be a little bit different. Twenty-seven though I may be, my favourite number today is 16. What a great number. Why, you ask? I can tell you why. Because that is how many consecutive surplus budgets a state Labor government have now delivered in Victoria. How good is that? This is the fifth one for the government. The member for Polwarth is looking stunned—16 in a row, sir; 16 budgets have actually been back in black and not some false projection used as an excuse to play an AC/DC tune, although it is a great song. We are projecting an average surplus of over $3 billion over the forward estimates, and unlike those opposite—well, I would say those opposite but the member for Ferntree Gully will have to do, bless him—our budgets do not slash, do not burn and cut our way to surplus. Our budgets and this budget are a stark contrast to anything those opposite could even dream of producing. It is a budget which speaks of fairness, delivers on intergenerational investment into game-changing infrastructure—what a sentence, I know—projects and delivers on every single promise, every last one. Because it is what we said we would do and we have got a track record of doing exactly that. I am also so proud that at the core of absolutely everything this government stands for is local jobs, and not just jobs but secure jobs. Since 2014 we have now created over 450 000 jobs, with about 70 per cent of those being secure full-time work. Right in the heart of my own electorate of Bayswater I have had countless residents come and tell me that they have benefited from this government’s investment in roads, rail, health, education and more. We talk about delivering for all Victorians, and we do. It is not just a phrase; it is something we truly live and breathe. This has been an extremely common theme. When I am out and about in the community as the member for Bayswater— Mr Fregon interjected. Mr TAYLOR: Absolutely—I have many encounters with locals who this budget benefits, and the promises in it we have kept—free TAFE, for example. I have had countless people come up to me and tell me they are utilising this program either as their first crack at training at a higher level or, for many, to reskill themselves and get themselves back into the workplace. So many of these people have been single parents in their 40s and 50s, and they have told me about the huge impact it has made on them and their family unit, and that is absolutely important. That is why this budget continues to deliver free TAFE and TAFE more generally, while those opposite cut and closed and cut and closed. Instead we are delivering $132 million to continue to transform our TAFE system—transform, not destroy; open, not close. That is how it is done when it comes to TAFE, because education is at the heart of who we are. We know the difference a strong education makes in life, particularly in the early years. While I segue across to early years, that is a beautiful point to point out the fact that we are getting on with delivering for schools, with record investment in upgrading and building our schools.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2411

Mr Halse: Tell us more. Mr TAYLOR: We truly are the Education State, member for Ringwood, and I will tell you more. Our investment and commitment to education is truly profound. For me education has been and always will be one of my biggest priorities. I know firsthand the difference a strong education can make in a child’s life, the difference it made in my life. Since the moment I was elected I have advocated tirelessly for local schools in my area, as a local member should do. Mr Halse: You live at your schools. Mr TAYLOR: The member for Ringwood just said I live at my schools—not quite. That would be a little bit worrying, but I have certainly been a strong presence there because you absolutely should be. In my first few days after being elected I went out to nearly every single school across my electorate and I learned about the needs of each and every single one of them. I have now been out to every last one of them, all 17 of them, and to many of them four, five, six or seven times. It is one of the best parts of my job. Mr Edbrooke: What a hardworking member. Mr TAYLOR: One of those schools, member for Frankston, is Bayswater Primary School, a smaller school but with such a massive heart. It has a strong and supportive school community with a great principal in Brooke Cross. I met with her last year and subsequently I was determined to get one of their ageing buildings fixed as it was passing its useful stage for children to learn in. That is why I was so proud as my first local announcement from this budget, with the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education, the member for Monbulk, I was able to announce $1.4 million to provide them with a new permanent modular construction facility which will have new state-of-the-art classrooms, new toilets and brand-new administration facilities and will be something that the kids of Bayswater primary can truly be proud to learn in. I must say that at first the minister told them he was going to tear the building down, to the children’s horror, but we quickly recovered. It is all on Facebook in a video for those of you playing at home. A member: It is a great video. Mr TAYLOR: I tell you what, it is fantastic. This building will be a loved addition to a new school, with delivery set to occur in the very near future courtesy of our friends at the Victorian School Building Authority. I am also happy to say that another one of my schools has been allocated capital upgrades in this year’s budget, the Boronia Heights Primary School. This is on top of the $8 million in works that this government has delivered to completely modernise the school and build a brand-new competition- grade gym which is changing the lives of children at that school—modern learning spaces and a competition-grade gym to keep them healthy, active and fit. You should come down there, Acting Speaker Richardson, as the Parliamentary Secretary for Schools. I would love to show you Boronia Heights. It is a fantastic school community down there. This budget delivers $1.32 million which will see a new state-of-the-art athletics track, a synthetic oval and improved outdoor spaces for the school. It is fantastic. They are the finishing touches on what are some amazing upgrades to an amazing school community who truly do deserve every bit of it. On the day of the budget, post the Treasurer’s speech, one of the best things that will stay with me for a long time—in my first budget of the Andrews Labor government, a government that gets on with getting things done for our schools—was the reaction that I got from school principals over the phone when I told them of these significant investments into their schools. They know as well as I do the great difference that this will make to them and to the learning and capacity of their wonderful schools, and I was so happy for them and their school communities.

MOTIONS 2412 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

However, education starts earlier than primary school. That is why we are also delivering on our commitment on three-year-old preschool—$882 million. This is the biggest change to education in a generation and delivered by this government. We are guaranteeing subsidised kinder for four-year- olds and we are going to give every single child in this state access to up to 5 hours of kindergarten by 2022, rolling out to 15 hours over the next 10 years. That is game-changing stuff in the early years space. It will change the game, and we are fields above anywhere else in this great country with three- year-old preschool, more TAFE, dental vans, extending breakfast clubs and record investment into new schools, all while creating local jobs. We have continued to invest in health; in fact $5.5 billion over the next three years. And in my community, as the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers, the honourable member for Narre Warren North, knows, we are creating a healthcare hub in Wantirna to ensure that the ageing community get the care and attention that they deserve. The new 120-bed aged-care facility will provide 60 high-care beds and 60 aged-care mental health specialist beds. This $81.6 million investment will change the game for health care right in the heart of my community in Wantirna. This will provide more beds, more services and first-class health care right in my local community. We are also keeping our promise to build a brand-new emergency department for kids and their families at Maroondah Hospital, as the member for Ringwood would rightfully know. This will give local families the peace of mind that their kids will get calm and compassionate care in the moments that matter most. We are also providing $4.6 million to kickstart planning for the next stage of the Angliss Hospital redevelopment, which will mean locals can get the care they need without travelling into the city. It will add more beds and better services, and we will make sure that those opposite do not try to close it like they did back in the Kennett days—disgraceful! We will always invest in health care, unlike those opposite. We are also investing in roads. I am just going from portfolio to portfolio, Acting Speaker, and I tell you what, there is some exciting stuff in the notes that I have here. We are also investing in roads in a big way. Notably, $15.8 billion is budgeted, funded for the North East Link, which will close the missing link on the ring road and connect up the eastern suburbs to the rest of the metropolitan roads network. It is the single largest investment into a roads project in our state’s history, and it will change the way we move around, whether it be cutting some travel times by up to 35 minutes on some journeys or creating more than 10 000 jobs right in the east— Mr Edbrooke: Ten thousand? Mr TAYLOR: Ten thousand jobs, member for Frankston, and thousands just in the eastern region—good local jobs. It will take trucks off local roads and there will be 135 000 vehicles using it every single day of the week, every single day of the year. It will put more lanes on the Eastern Freeway and add an express busway as well. This road will get those in the east where they need to go and will get them home safer and sooner. Then they can spend more time with their loved ones and more time off the roads. Locally, we are also fixing a problem intersection. This intersection at Canterbury and Bedford roads I have worked very hard on with the member for Ringwood in advocating to the Minister for Roads. The community has spoken to us, and we have heard them and now we are getting on with it. This will unclog this intersection and make it safer for people to navigate it, with major modifications to the left-turn slip lane out of the service road on Bedford Road forming part of the works. As a local, I drive these roads as well, and I am glad this road upgrade will make this intersection safer for all locals. We of course continue to deliver on the Metro Tunnel, the West Gate Tunnel, the Suburban Rail Loop and removing 75 of our most dangerous and congested level crossings, with two having been removed right out of the heart of my electorate at Scoresby Road and Mountain Highway. The former member for Bayswater, I did not know if she was for or against it, but I can tell you what: they are gone thanks to the Andrews Labor government, who continues to remove these relics of the past. We said 25, we

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2413 got rid of 29, and we will do 75 by 2025. I tell you what, if that was not a rhyme, I have never heard one. We are creating jobs and we are bringing the cost of power down as we continue to roll out over 700 000 solar panels on roofs. Moving to the next portfolio, sport—I tell you what, the list goes on and on—our investment in local sport also continues. In the eastern suburbs basketball is huge. In fact one in two basketballers in Victoria are based right here in the east—or right out there in the east. We are not in the east now, but right out there. One in two Victorian basketballers are in the east, and that is why we are delivering $83 million to support the sport from grassroots all the way through to elite. This investment will, most importantly, create 10 new community courts, a new centre of excellence and reinvest in women’s basketball, supporting young women all the way through to the Deakin Melbourne Boomers, They have done a fantastic job in empowering young women in my local community. We will also see Melbourne’s second National Basketball League team call the east home. As they say, what a slam dunk—that is 2 points for basketball out in the eastern suburbs. Members interjecting. Mr TAYLOR: Three points! What a slam dunk for local basketball. I only wish there were more members opposite listening to these fantastic budget commitments for my local community. Our dogs need some love and attention too, they really do. That is why we are delivering on our promise for new doggo parks—we love the doggos—in both Knox and Maroondah, as the member for Ringwood would know. This is a pawsitive step in the right direction, and my community is excited. They are excited. Ms Addison: Now we have the dad jokes! Mr TAYLOR: I know—27 and I am already saying stuff like that; bless. Of course we continue to fund our commitment to implement every recommendation from the Royal Commission into Family Violence. We are now in the process of going through a mental health royal commission, the outcome of which is crucially important for so many in our community. Let it never be forgotten that one in two people at some stage of their life will be affected by a mental health illness. Whether it is you or someone you care for or somebody you love, nobody goes untouched. That is why we are continuing to invest in mental health, with $173 million going to make sure we help Victorians with mental health illness. I know others are watching eagerly to see the outcomes of the mental health royal commission, and we have already committed to implementing every single last recommendation. I will finish on that note. I will finish on what is such an important note and something that matters to so many Victorians. Ultimately this is a budget that is fair, it is decent. It invests in our future, it gets things done, keeps our promises to all Victorians, and I am very, very proud to speak on it. Ms RYAN (Euroa) (12:25): I am not sure what budget papers the member for Bayswater was looking at, but they are certainly not the budget papers that I have been reading. He may have been spitting out a bunch of talking points given to him from an army of government advisers, but he certainly has not been reading the budget papers, because this is a budget that delivers the most savage cuts to services in this state that I think we have seen in decades. It is a budget that drastically increases debt, and it raids— A member interjected. Ms RYAN: I do remember the 2011 budget. This is a budget that puts in place a much higher efficiency dividend on the public service than the 2011 budget. It is clear that members of the house sitting on the government benches have not actually gone through and done a proper comparison of

MOTIONS 2414 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 this budget against previous years; otherwise they could not possibly stand up and praise it in the way that they have. Apart from the global settings around this budget, where we see for example $4.4 billion in dividends coming out of the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority and Transport Accident Commission, which of course have responsibility for road safety as well as looking after some of the most vulnerable in our state who have faced road accidents, and also WorkSafe, this is a budget that also increases dividends from the state’s water authorities by 156 per cent just in one year alone. And it is very apparent from reading the budget papers that if the government was not taking that money, they would in fact be severely in deficit. Aside from those issues, aside from the fact that it drastically increases debt, it is amazing when you look at the cuts to some of the following spending areas. The education support services budget has been cut. There are huge cuts to regional development. The operating budget alone of the regional development budget has been cut by 21 per cent, and that is actually staffing within regional development. That is Regional Development Victoria’s (RDV) ability to run their organisation on a day-to-day basis. Aside from that, you now have a case where the Regional Growth Fund, which was put in place by The Nationals in partnership with the Liberals back in 2011, an eight-year-long $1 billion program, has now lapsed and the government has not put anything in place this year or across the forward estimates. That program has been absolutely vital to communities across my electorate. We have had projects that would not have got a look in through regular state government budget processes that have been funded as a consequence of that $1 billion that Peter Ryan put aside back in 2011, when the member for Rowville was in fact the Treasurer. It is gut-wrenching for our communities to lose that source of funding, which the government has been happy to spend over the last four years but has put nothing in place to replace it. I even point back to the Bracks and Brumby years, when Steve Bracks and John Brumby actually saw the need for a specific regional development fund. That no longer exists. So we have got a case where RDV staff are being drastically cut. There is no regional development fund any longer, and it is our understanding that there are actually staff in RDV who are now being seconded to Agriculture Victoria; otherwise they would lose their jobs. But this budget, when I look at it, I really see a tale of two different states. I think it tells a story of two different directions and two different futures under the Andrews government. When you look at the infrastructure funding, and particularly the funding around public transport in this year’s budget, 96 per cent of that is going into metropolitan Melbourne, while just 4 per cent of funding around public transport is going into country Victoria. It is a very, very stark difference in the spending priorities under this government. I go back to the election last year, where we had a $19 billion commitment over 10 years to invest in regional public transport to create a network of high-speed trains across regional Victoria, because we had a vision to actually decentralise the state and put the services and the infrastructure in place to encourage people to move to thriving regional areas. Under this government their focus has been almost entirely in Melbourne’s CBD and in the metropolitan area. Before this year’s budget I actually put together a document called Euroa Matters, which I sent to the Premier and the Treasurer ahead of this year’s budget. It came about after a number of listening posts. I surveyed many people throughout my community, and we had 337 survey responses from that, where I asked people what they believed our area, what our part of the world, needed in this year’s budget. I sent a list of those priorities and the findings from that process to the Premier and the Treasurer ahead of the budget. I have to say that public transport really was the thing that I think probably dominated feedback from people, and that is no surprise to me because we have a train service across our part of the world that is constantly late. We have trains that are constantly breaking down. I of course have raised many individual stories in this place over the last four and a half years of people who have found themselves stuck for hours on a broken-down train or people who have had

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2415 to take long service leave from work because they could not rely on the public transport system to get them where they needed to go on time. If you have a look at the most recent V/Line performance statistics, you will see that for the third month in a row now almost half of the trains on the north-east line are failing to arrive within 11 minutes of their scheduled time frame. There would be an absolute riot if there were metropolitan lines that were performing like that, but because it is in country areas the government just carries on and thinks that they can sweep those issues under the carpet. I fought very long and hard to impress upon the government an understanding of why we need our train services fixed and why we need a more reliable and punctual service that actually gets to Melbourne and back to our communities on time. So you can imagine how excited we were when on budget day some government members came out and said that finally the government was going to buy new trains for the north-east line. I think those trains were also sold to the Shepparton community. I certainly do thank the Leader of the House and Minister for Transport Infrastructure for her very kind words in acknowledging my long-held advocacy for those trains. But I am concerned that the government is backflipping. We have had very mixed messages from the government about those trains. If you have a look at some of the time lines around that issue, back in April 2017 the Premier said that the moment the federal government made a commitment to fix the track on the north-east line, he would be happy to be on the phone to the Prime Minister giving him his word and the government’s commitment that they would be good for the rolling stock investment that would be needed. Then of course in October that year Michael McCormack did announce $235 million for the north-east line upgrade. In November 2018, just before the election, the government came out and said, ‘Well, actually, we’re not going to invest in trains for the north-east line or those other long-haul lines, we’re going to buy 18 new three-car VLocity sets, and all of them are going to go to Geelong and Ballarat’. We then saw on budget day the budget came out and it delivered what the government had promised before the election—18 three-car VLocity train sets, and in the budget they said that all of those trains were going to Geelong and Ballarat. So it was with some confusion but also delight when the government came out and said, ‘Oh no, actually we’re also going to give some of those trains to the north-east line’. But the details were incredibly sketchy. The day after the budget Jaclyn Symes’s office in the other place was telling the local paper that there was definitely funding for 18 extra trains: ‘The lines haven’t been allocated yet, but we’re definitely funding them and we would expect the north-east line will benefit from them’. Then on the same day you had the government out telling the Border Mail that the first of these trains were going to be going to the north-east line. Then the next day you had Jaclyn Symes telling the Border Mail that she is very, very happy that we have got the north-east line trains. Then just last week at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee you had the Minister for Public Transport, who would not confirm what lines those 18 new trains are going to or whether the north-east line is going to receive new trains or not. Then two days after that you had the local papers again reporting comments from the government that said, ‘Four trains, maybe seven trains, for the north-east line’. So we had the Premier making a promise in 2017, which when the federal government came through with money he refused to honour. We then had Ms Symes making a promise in 2019. The Minister for Transport Infrastructure seemed to commit to at least four trains this month, but then in the budget and in PAEC the transport infrastructure minister could not commit to or confirm any details. So it has been a completely shambolic delivery of this commitment, if indeed that is what it is. It certainly appears that the government is simply making it up as it goes along. It is very difficult for people to trust anything they are saying when every day they are saying something completely different. The other issue I wanted to mention is education. I have been a very staunch advocate of the need to fully fund Benalla College and the upgrade of Benalla College. In 2007 that community came together under the then Brumby government. They were promised a completely new school if they merged, and

MOTIONS 2416 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 here we are more than 10 years later and that still has not been delivered. We made an election commitment at the last election—and at the one prior to that I have to say—to fully fund the rebuild of that school, and we actually started that when we were in government. I was delighted that after some pressure the Labor government at the time came to the party on that, and I was pleased to see that that funding was put into this year’s budget, although it is back-ended across the forward estimates. But there are also bigger issues at that school which were never canvassed with the community. The school was recently informed that it is losing 10 per cent of its operational budget, which works out to about $1800 per student, leading to—the school community was told; the teachers were told—job losses, program cuts and increased class sizes. The rationale for that has been, ‘Well, you’ve merged onto one campus, so you now don’t need as much money’. I think that is a complete betrayal of the Benalla community. That was never discussed with them when they were encouraged to merge into one site, and I would urge the government to revisit that and to put a stay on removing that money from the school, because we have an incredibly disadvantaged community. Our socio-economic indicators are not good, and that community has worked incredibly hard at a community level over a number of years to invest in early education measures to actually lift the performance of the school, and it is really gut-wrenching for that community now to be told that they are going to lose a substantial proportion of their budget. I do not have much time left, but I do want to touch on the Kilmore-Wallan bypass, again a project which we committed to fund at this election, the previous election and the election prior to that but which the government has done very, very little with. When they were in opposition they were happy to criticise us over it, but they have not put any funding aside. I apologise—they did actually put $20 million aside in last year’s budget for land acquisition, but what we see in this budget is they are no longer proposing to spend it in accordance with time frames. They are taking three years just to do the land acquisition over a critically important project in my electorate. Kilmore is choking in traffic, and while they can stand here and tell us how they are barrelling along with projects like the North East Link or any project in Melbourne, in country Victoria they are going to take three years just to do the land acquisition, and we have local Labor MPs saying, ‘Sorry, it’s not shovel-ready yet’. Well, that project was shovel-ready years ago, and it is time that the government got on and built it. It is time that they became a government that governs for all of Victoria, not just those who live in the CBD and in the suburbs of Melbourne, because we deserve no less than what is put into metropolitan Melbourne, and in fact we demand more and we demand better. Ms HUTCHINS (Sydenham) (12:40): I am very pleased to rise on the budget reply because our government is delivering on its promises. Let me take you through some of those commitments and how they deliver for the people of Sydenham through job creation, with major investments in our infrastructure, in our health system, in our education system, in aged care and of course in transport. I am very proud that the Andrews Labor government has committed $2.1 billion to transform train services on the Sunbury line and in particular Watergardens station. These upgrades will ensure the new high-capacity trains can reliably run all the way from Sunbury to Cranbourne and Pakenham and link through the CBD by the Melbourne Metro Tunnel project, with five new underground stations. What this will deliver for locals in my area is a saving of up to 20 minutes off journeys to Parkville and of course St Kilda Road. This will help cut travel times but also provide an extra over 100 000 passengers on the Sunbury line during peak periods, which equals 60 per cent more capacity during peak times on the Sunbury line. This project means more jobs for Victorians, with the construction and the upgrades, and more trains running more often, delivering for our local people. Local commuters can also look forward to an easier time in finding a car park, which is a significant issue at Watergardens station, with a commitment in the budget of $150 million to improve parking across Victoria’s busiest stations, and this includes Watergardens station. I am very pleased that this budget funded around 579 new car parks for Watergardens station. As locals we know how landlocked the station currently is, with the ever-growing shopping centre right next door, and I know that these are going to give much relief to commuters. Given the area’s significant growth, Sydenham

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2417 commuters are very excited about the delivery of these new spaces and I know they want them as soon as possible. The Andrews Labor government has also committed $680 million to start the airport rail link. The airport rail link has been talked about for decades. It has certainly been a barbecue conversation in my area many times, particularly because a high percentage of people who live in my electorate, particularly in the area of Taylors Lakes, actually have jobs at the airport. Unfortunately this was put into the too-hard basket in the past. Well, we are actually getting on with the job and delivering this vital link, the airport rail link. This initial early works funding will begin a project that will see jobs created and will reduce traffic growth on our roads over the long term. The Andrews Labor government has also funded the North East Link, which will fix the missing link in Melbourne’s freeway network, connecting the M80 with the Eastern Freeway. This will be just so significant for people who are travelling across to the north-east from the west. Not only will it create more than 10 000 jobs, but it will support and open up a whole new route that is sorely sought after by the freight industry in this state, which again provides hundreds of thousands of jobs across Victoria. Moving on to early childhood education and commitments that were made through the budget, we know, because research has told us and we have listened, that quality play-based learning is a powerful way to support children’s learning and development. The evidence shows that two years are much better than one when it comes to early learning, so taking part in a quality kinder program at an earlier age leads to more positive effects on a child’s development. It has even greater benefits for children who need extra support or who may be growing up in vulnerable circumstances. That is why I am very pleased that this budget delivers the beginning of three-year-old kinder at a cost of $882 million for subsidised three-year-old kinder. In 2022 three-year-olds across the state will have access to at least 5 hours in a qualified kinder program led by a teacher. We know that this rollout will need to have new spaces created, and that is why we have committed $33 million in this budget to build, expand and develop our kinder facilities. We are continuing to invest in Victoria’s education and skills system to make sure that we unlock the potential of every Victorian so that our community can share in the benefits. We are doing this in a number of ways: with a significant investment in TAFE and supporting parents and students in primary school and high school with funding for those who cannot afford it to be able to go on camps, participate in sports or go on excursions. We have improved the needs-based funding to all schools, and now we are also delivering a $58 million program to extend and expand the school breakfast clubs program. Now, the school breakfast clubs program is an absolute game changer in my electorate. I had one particular school that I personally had to fundraise for when we were in opposition. I had to organise a fundraiser where we raised $2000 for this particular school to be able to put on a breakfast program because we had too many students who were falling asleep in class in the early hours of the morning—they had come to school without any breakfast and just did not have the energy to continue. These sorts of programs do give the chance of an equal footing to so many kids out there. I am particularly proud of the commitment of an additional $6.5 million for Copperfield College, which builds on the $3.5 million delivered in the 2018–19 budget. I know that this will help support students and parents continue to do the great work on the learning journey that those kids are on at Copperfield by fixing the buildings that are in disarray. The Andrews Labor government has also listened to our young women and has committed $20.7 million to provide free tampons and pads in government schools to ensure that students can focus on their studies and to help ease the cost of living for families. I am also proud of our initial investment of $322 million to begin delivering school dental vans, saving families stress, time off work and about $400 per year per child. That is an amazing investment and something that I heard a lot about as a need locally during the election period.

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That brings me to health. The Victorian budget for 2019–20 delivers on Labor’s commitments to build a modern hospital network for a growing Victoria, with 2 million more patients expected to be treated over the next year. The budget commits $31 million to expand the Royal Children’s Hospital, a place I have had to visit many a time with my son, by building a new 30-bed flexi ward and 20 new emergency department cubicles to help treat our littlest Victorians. The budget also commits $2.3 million to begin planning for the Melton hospital—something that I know is vital for our growing suburbs and something that I absolutely welcome, along with many, many residents in the eastern end of the Melton catchment area, which covers Taylors Hill and Caroline Springs—and planning to determine how it will be linked to other services and hospitals in the western region, including of course the new Footscray Hospital and the Joan Kirner Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Our budget continues to deliver for the much-needed upgrades at Sunshine Hospital as well, in particular the work that is being done around expanding the emergency department there but also the expansion of much-needed mental health services and palliative care services. Not only will the planning for a Melton hospital be a game changer but so too will be the delivery of a new hospital in Footscray, where we know there is a great need in both the inner and the outer west for a vibrant health, research and education precinct that can bring all of those things together. Of course all of this construction means more jobs for the west and better health care closer to home. We are also investing in our emergency services and community safety, with an additional $109 million being allocated to deliver 23 new vehicles for Ambulance Victoria, giving Victorians confidence in an emergency system that only an Andrews Labor government could deliver and improve on. Building on the 1000 new paramedics rolled out across the state over the past four years, the Andrews Labor government has funded an extra 90 new paramedic positions. As a result our community is benefiting from some of the fastest response times in years. We are also delivering more investment for community safety, counterterrorism activities and support for at-risk youths, and we are reducing offending and of course tackling family violence in a way that no other government is doing anywhere in Australia. We brought in changes to our bail and sentencing laws and we are continuing to recruit, train and deploy over 3100 new police. This is the most support police have seen ever. We have promised to put power back in the hands of Victorians, and through our landmark Solar Homes program that is exactly what we are doing. This year’s budget delivers on Labor’s position in regard to solar by investing $1.3 billion to make sure that more Victorians can take control and cut their power bills. This includes rolling out solar panels, solar hot water or solar batteries to 770 000 homes over the next decade, expanding the program to renters—very important—and ensuring the safety and sustainability of the rollout with funding for training, safety and quality audits, making sure that more Victorians get access to the Solar Homes package. We know that more needs to be done to address the shortage of public and social housing, and that is why I am pleased that the Andrews Labor government has committed $209 million to build 1000 new public housing properties across our suburbs and a further $50.4 million for homelessness services across the state. I am so pleased that this government in the past has supported the establishment of Hope Street Youth and Family Services and the services that they are providing at a new facility in Melton to deliver for many of our kids who face homelessness as a result of drug use in their households or as a result of family violence that they are experiencing at home. The Andrews Labor government is doing so much more, including investing in celebrating our diversity and growing our creative and innovative industries. I was pleased to see in the budget $800 000 for Kalyna Care aged-care facility in my electorate to ensure that the elderly are culturally and linguistically supported in their aged-care facility. This is a great facility which welcomes residents from all European countries, including Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Germany, Austria, Croatia and Serbia. They do an amazing job at this home, and it is a pleasure to be able to say that we are supporting them.

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Victoria’s diverse communities will also benefit from expanded language programs, including new aged-care facilities catering to Chinese and Indian senior citizens across the state. We are also helping to deliver Australia's first Vietnamese museum and cultural centre, dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing Vietnamese history and traditions; and it will be located in the west. A $7.5 million investment will deliver on the government’s commitment to help promote cultural heritage by expanding community language schools so that about 2000 of our littlest Victorians can learn their mother tongue or that of their preschool mates. This is a great initiative, and I know it is something very much welcomed in my electorate. Finally, the Melton growth corridor is booming, with almost 60 000 new residents expected to take up residence in the Plumpton and Kororoit precinct plan over the next two years. Our state is growing and we must continue to make sure that Victorians have an opportunity to buy homes. We also need to make sure that we are delivering new infrastructure in time and expanding existing infrastructure. We need the federal government to step up and work with the Victorian government to upgrade the Calder Freeway between the M80 and Diggers Rest, in particular to build an interchange at Calder Park Drive. We need a suburban roads package for Melbourne's north-west that duplicates Melton Highway west of Hillside and duplicates Taylors Road west of Kings Road. It also needs to look at duplicating Calder Park Drive and removing the roundabout at the intersection of Melton Highway and Sunshine Avenue. We need to secure the land for our new primary and high schools in the Plumpton precinct structure plan. I will continue to work with existing schools to advocate for the needs of our schools in the future. This budget really does deliver for families in Sydenham in education, aged care and transport, and I will continue to advocate for investment in our roads and for new schools to be built into the future. I thank the Treasurer for delivering such a fantastic budget and congratulate the Premier. Ms KEALY (Lowan) (12:55): It is a fortunate privilege to be able to respond to the state budget this year, but it is unfortunate that my response is more about the lack of what is in the budget for my electorate of Lowan and my part of the state—in fact all of country Victoria—as opposed to celebrating what this budget delivers for my region. Unfortunately, even though we hear the rhetoric time and time again that this is a government that delivers for all Victorians, it appears that in the perception of the Premier, Victoria’s boundaries, its borders, finish just beyond Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong and include Melbourne. I say that because when it comes to investing in our schools, our roads, rail in our region, health services, police services, mental health or regional development, it simply is not occurring. The evidence speaks for itself when you look over the budget papers. A comment that I have heard regularly when I have been listening to other responses to the take-note motion around the budget is that this is a government that keeps its promises and is delivering on those promises. But the unfortunate thing is that when it came to the state election in 2018 Labor did not form any commitments in the Lowan electorate. Therefore it is incumbent upon the Premier of Victoria—which is the Victoria which goes all the way to the South Australian border and the New South Wales border—to listen to what local people voted for. The local people voted for a vast array of really important infrastructure projects that would make an enormous difference to the lives of the people who live in the Lowan electorate, and who choose to do so. These are not people who would prefer to be somewhere else; they actually really enjoy living there. They love the country lifestyle. There are vibrant businesses, not just in agriculture but also many, many small businesses, where we are doing things differently. We are looking at investment in research. I think Horsham has one of the major research centres when it comes to grains, oilseeds and legumes. When you look at Hamilton, there is a red meat innovation centre. These are all fantastic things that are happening in our electorate, but we have been neglected by a city-centric government.

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I would like to go through some of the key priorities that my people voted for and that I would wholly encourage the government to endorse and support and make sure that they are included in next year’s budget, because this budget has failed my people. In fact there is no funding for any infrastructure in the Lowan electorate in this year’s budget. So it is completely misleading and untrue when the Premier says, ‘We’re delivering for all Victorians’, because this government simply is not delivering for the people who live in country Victoria and particularly the electorate of Lowan. The biggest issue and an area of neglect that I simply cannot understand has been imposed on our electorate by the Minister for Education is the terrible situation which has occurred in Warracknabeal as part of the Warracknabeal education precinct. Before the 2014 election The Nationals took to the election an upgrade of the Warracknabeal education precinct, making sure that we would keep that project going. Much-needed works are required to desperately fix some of the issues around that school. There is currently a primary school which needs some works urgently. There is a separate secondary college which has got enormous structural issues within the school. There are cracks in the walls that you can fit a fist in. There is possum urine dripping down the ceiling. It really is not fit for purpose and it has not had any money spent on it for about 30 or 40 years. It is not up to scratch. There is no way that we are supporting the students who attend that secondary college, nor supporting their educators to deliver the quality education these kids deserve. They are Victorian kids, they are not living in a Third World country. We live in the country; we do not live in a Third World country. It is very, very important that this is delivered. We also have the special development school in Warracknabeal which could not attract any state or federal funding, or they could not spend anything because they were on private land. So while there was some funding provided to the SDS as part of the Building the Education Revolution, that funding went to improve buildings and build new buildings at the primary school site. We fought and we fought, and finally we got delivery of a small package of money, a little bit for the SDS and a little bit for the secondary college, to build the Warracknabeal education precinct and get it underway. But it simply was not enough, and the government have never, ever explained why they thought it was good enough for the Warracknabeal community to build half a secondary college and a third of the special development school. What we now have is a situation where this government will not even commit to finishing this project, and I get very emotional about this situation. Sitting suspended 1.00 p.m. until 2.01 p.m. Ms KEALY: As I was saying before the lunch break, I am very, very emotional about what has been happening with the Warracknabeal education precinct because they were given insufficient funds, which has meant that we have got half-a-brand-new secondary college with the newest science laboratory, fully fitted out with beautiful fume cupboards, Bunsen burners and proper lab benches set up, and it cannot be used at this point in time. We have got a third of the SDS, the special development school, who have had to cut their educational programs towards the students that go to that school because they were told that this school funding would come through and they would be able to finish the project starting this financial year. But unfortunately what we have seen from Labor is that they have not delivered on that. I know there was a very, very cute ministers statement earlier this week from the Minister for Education, who spoke about how people across Victoria—and all students—would now be able to read in the budget papers all the great things they are doing in the state of Victoria. Well, I am sorry, Minister, you are not delivering for the students of western Victoria. While you let the Warracknabeal education precinct sit and rot, while you have the ridiculous situation of secondary school students sitting in a school that is falling apart and which has not had any money spent on it for about 30 or 40 years, while you have got a brand-new science lab sitting empty and not being used and while you have got special development kids who cannot access the full range of programs that they should be able to access and could access only the year beforehand when they were at their old site, you are really doing things wrong. I want the

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2421 minister to step back and review what he is doing because he is letting these kids down and it is an absolute disgrace. Please immediately find some funding. I know it was not in the budget papers but you have got a surplus. You can deliver to make sure you finish the project you started. I have commended the group Finish What You Started, a fantastic community group built around people who are desperately interested to see the Warracknabeal education precinct funded. They have been great in their advocacy, and I urge them to continue to hold this Labor government to account when they say they will deliver for all Victorians, because what this government says and what this government does are two entirely different things. It is not just Warracknabeal that has missed out in terms of education; Baimbridge College has missed out on funding even though Labor promised that funding for their desperately needed upgrade before the last election. This was a funding program which had bipartisan support. The Nationals made a commitment to upgrade Baimbridge, as did Labor. The difference is when Labor have had the opportunity to deliver they have let our country communities down yet again, and I urge the government to prioritise funding for that important school. We look at other aspects. Particularly around connectivity, it is so important for our rural and regional communities that we have good connectivity with other centres. For our part of the state we are completely underdeveloped when it comes to that. The Nationals made a fully funded commitment to return passenger rail to western Victoria, to return rail to Horsham and return it to Hamilton. This is something that had been costed by Treasury after the election and found to be fully funded and supported, and we will continue to commit to that because I know what a difference it will make to our communities if we can have connections by rail, not just into Ballarat but also through to Melbourne. We need to make sure that we have European-style fast rail where we possibly can. But do you know what? I would do anything to bring back a train anytime soon. We would be happy with a shuttle service. We would be happy to see that. It would be fantastic to see that, but unfortunately when we look at the budget papers— Members interjecting. Ms KEALY: It is interesting that we hear the member for Yan Yean and the member for Wendouree, who seems to be very, very loud, but unfortunately she is not advocating for connecting these country communities to support her own region as well. When you read in the budget papers about the Western Rail Plan, it actually ignores everything beyond Ballarat and Geelong. So when it comes to Labor, again, they say one thing—‘We’re delivering for all Victorians’—but when it comes down to the crunch of what they actually do rather than what they say, we find that they never ever deliver and they never ever go beyond Ballarat, Bendigo and Geelong. Time and time again we have got this restricted vision of where Victoria’s border is, and we see it. It is just a complete disaster, and unfortunately our people are sick of it and they want to see funding delivered to our region because we deserve it. We deserve our fair share, and I will continue to hold this government to account to make sure we get our fair share. And I will call out the Premier when he does not deliver that and when he says things that simply are not true and he will not deliver for our people. We also look at roads. We look at the roads in our region, and I note the Minister for Roads made this announcement today that she is going to install these fancy new flashing lights to reduce speed limits on the Cavendish to Dunkeld road. I have been on this road many times, and it is perhaps the worst road in western Victoria. This road needs to be widened and to have the potholes fixed, and there are significant drop-offs of 20 or 30 centimetres throughout that road—and we are not seeing that road being fixed. Reduced speed limit signs, whether they are lit up or not, are not going to make a difference. It is a significant roadway. It involves heavy loads of trucks—logging trucks and stock trucks—going through that area. It is also used by school buses, by people going to work or going to footy and netball training, and it is an essential route. We do not need signs. We need money to fix our roads.

MOTIONS 2422 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

But this week we have heard that the government is not spending their road maintenance money on fixing our roads and saving country lives. What they are spending it on is fixing the wire rope barriers which are on straight stretches of road. They are not even on any of the major bends that we have. I would think that in my electorate, if you were going to install any wire rope barriers, you would make sure it was around the Grampians, where there is huge drop-off on the side of the road. There are often accidents, and you would lose your life if you fell off the side of the road round some of those bends. But we have not seen that; we have not seen that at all. In fact we are seeing just more and more cuts to our road budget. When it comes to supporting our local police, who do an absolutely fantastic job in our rural communities—I cannot speak highly enough of them—we are not seeing the investment in infrastructure that these people desperately need to make sure we can fill our vacancies. There was no commitment to match The Nationals’ commitment of a new police station in Coleraine with a new house, or to look at the master plan for the police precinct in Hamilton. The police and courthouse precinct is well and truly aged. It is past its use-by date. It does not meet occupational health and safety requirements, and it needs to be upgraded. But again, it is an opportunity that went begging because Labor did not provide any commitments in infrastructure in the lead-up to the last election in the Lowan electorate. We were completely neglected, yet again, by Labor. We can talk about health. The Nationals made a commitment to upgrade the Willaura campus of East Grampians Health Service—a fantastic hospital and a very, very important health service for that Willaura region. Again, Labor did not fund it. We need to see that funding flow sooner rather than later. Bush nursing centres—there is no ongoing funding for bush nursing centres. There is a huge question mark over what the future is now for bush nursing centres. We know that in our region we have got four bush nursing centres. They do an absolutely amazing job. They are providing healthcare services in regions where people are a long way from a hospital and where there are not any GP services, and if it was not for these BNCs I know that these communities would probably just lose their population. I do not think the government quite understands what the issue is around bush nursing centres. In fact when I asked this question before of the previous Minister for Health she confused them with bush nursing hospitals. She did not even know what bush nursing centres were. We need to make sure that even though it is a country model of health care the government understands it and properly funds it, or we are going to have enormous gaps in our health system in Victoria. We also look at overall regional development. What did Labor do when it came to regional development in Victoria? They cut the funding. They did not just cut it a little bit, they cut it by 21 per cent, which means we have got fewer staff in our offices who are able to process any grants. But maybe that is because there are not really any grants to be able to fund; there is nothing to process. In fact Labor have axed the Regional Growth Fund, and the Regional Growth Fund had delivered so much for rural and regional communities. This is something that The Nationals were keen to develop and to deliver for our rural communities and our country centres. I know that in my electorate of Lowan this is something that has delivered so many supporting pieces of infrastructure, whether it was expanding Luv-a-Duck or whether it was supporting councils for important infrastructure or supporting our local sporting clubs and organisations. It was an essential fund and Labor have cut it. It is an absolute disgrace, and so whenever you hear the Premier or any of other Labor ministers or Labor MPs standing up and saying, ‘We’re delivering for all Victorians’, have a look at the evidence. When you look at the evidence and you look through the budget papers it is not what we talk about in the budget papers, it is not what we see for our electorates, it is the absence of any key investment in our electorates. We know that if country Victoria is strong all of Victoria is strong, but under the Premier and under the Labor government we see an underinvestment in country Victoria, and it is a failure of this government for doing so. Ms COUZENS (Geelong) (14:12): It is a great honour to be able to speak on this budget motion and the follow-through of our election commitments from the November state election. As many members would know in this place, Geelong had experienced a pretty tough time when we first won

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2423 the election in 2014. We have spent the last four and a half years rebuilding Geelong, and that was with no help from those opposite. Education has been a major priority for me, having 21 schools in my electorate, the vast majority of which need major work done on them. Over the last four and a half years we have achieved that. We have done major work on just about every one of those schools, putting them in a much better position and providing state-of-the-art facilities for all children in Geelong—not only the children but the secondary school students as well. So for Geelong High School, which we had already committed over $20 million to and whose redevelopment is well underway and getting to the last stage, in this budget we committed another $2.2 million for it to finish off all the work that was required. There were significant unknown factors around asbestos removal that Geelong High School had experienced. When the building started to come down they discovered that a lot of asbestos had been thrown underground and just concreted over after a fire. The cost of that—as all of us would know in this place—is quite considerable, so we did provide Geelong high with an additional $2.2 million in this budget. For Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College, again, in previous budgets there was an over $7 million commitment to their redevelopment. Again, asbestos removal required some additional funding, so we provided another $800 000 for them to deal with that issue and make sure that they were able to deliver the final plans that had been proposed for the school now that that is underway. For Newcomb Park Primary School we made an election commitment of $3.2 million to refurbish and modernise the classrooms, creating a far better learning environment for the children there and providing that modern education that all children in Victoria deserve. So we have allocated $320 000 to do the planning for that. I know the school is very excited to have seen that commitment— $3.2 million will do a lot at that school. They have had ongoing maintenance money but have not had any major redevelopments in recent years, so they are very excited about sitting down with the planners and ensuring that they get the best possible outcomes for their students with that $3.2 million. On Newcomb Secondary College, again we committed $6 million to do some significant work at Newcomb Secondary College and have allocated in this budget the $600 000 required to do the planning to identify what work needs to be done and how that will be done. Again, they are very excited about that opportunity. Newcomb is one of those schools that targets what they do around the needs of their students—very much so—and have some pretty amazing projects happening there. So they are particularly excited that they are going to be able to have some input into designing what they want in their new redevelopment. On Oberon Primary School, in previous budgets we committed $1.4 million, and that work has begun. However, they also were short due to a number of factors, so we have allocated $950 000 to ensure that their students get the best possible outcome from the redevelopment. They are very, very excited at being able to finish what they believe to be the best possible outcome for their students. Oberon South Primary School gets $3.39 million, and that is on top of funding we had already allocated—over $1 million in the previous budget. Oberon South Primary School is a school that is hidden behind a hill—that is probably the best description—so it cannot be seen from the street. It has had maintenance money, like many other schools, but needs some major work. As a consequence of discussions with the school council and the principal, they proposed to move the school to another site, which is not far away but will locate them next to a kindergarten and on a main road so that they are visible and not hidden behind a hill. The important thing for them is to be able to do that and build up their school. They have only got about 50 students at the school. They did not want to close down; they wanted to continue. So they have come up with this proposal, which the fantastic Minister for Education considered and agreed to given that it was the community that were asking for that change. They are very, very excited at the prospect of having a whole new school on a different site, so discussions are underway on how that might happen. The Gordon TAFE, the culinary school there, received $23.5 million, which is absolutely fantastic for the Gordon TAFE and of course for people of the Geelong region who rely on our TAFE and who

MOTIONS 2424 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 want to access those 30 free TAFE courses that we have on offer. That is on top of over $40 million through previous budgets from this government, which is pretty significant. The Gordon TAFE was on its knees under those opposite—really struggling to continue to provide any form of courses for their students, those people of Geelong—but since we came to government, as I said, we have spent over $40 million getting that back to the state-of-the-art facility that it should be, but also doing things like providing $23.5 million to improve their culinary school. Some years back Gordon TAFE’s Davidson Restaurant, which is part of the culinary school, was well renowned for their silver service, the training of students, and that was lost under the previous government. We are now seeing the rebuilding of that. The kitchens need to be completely refitted out, hence $23.5 million to do that. Those upgrade works will provide a state-of-the-art facility for students, which is what they deserve. It will again bring the Gordon back up to that high quality standard of education that we are aiming for not just in Geelong but right across Victoria. We also of course see the rollout of three-year-old kindergarten. That is really important in my community. People are really excited at the prospect of their children being able to access three-year- old kinder, starting with 5 hours and working up to 15 hours. The feedback on that announcement has been very significant. As we have heard from the minister, we know that children have a far better outcome in later life if they have that early learning opportunity. So three-year-old kinder is a real hit in my electorate, as I am sure it is in other electorates, along with school breakfast clubs. We know how important they are. We know that $58 million across the state will go a long way to providing those services for all children that rely on the breakfast program. I know in my electorate it is a very popular thing for children to have their breakfast at school. The free dental care for public primary and secondary schools is a fantastic decision—the $321.9 million for dental vans. So many parents struggle to cover the cost of regular dental check-ups for their children, which we know results in tooth decay and problems for those children later on in life. Having the dental vans visiting the schools means a saving of about $400 per child for families each year. I know that in my community, where there are many working-class areas and people who are reliant on pensions and benefits, this will be a significant factor for them. They will be comfortable in the knowledge that their children will get to see a dentist and it is going to be at no cost to them, which is really important. The other big thing for me is our commitment to treaty, and of course we know that we have made a massive commitment to treaty—another $11 million over two years for the First Peoples Assembly, which is due to happen this year, which is really exciting; and another $13.5 million over two years to support Victorian traditional owners to build capacity in the lead-up to the treaty negotiations in the coming years. Really exciting stuff. It is not just about making these announcements, it is actually seeing them through and providing the resources that are required to ensure that treaty becomes a reality for our First Nations people in Victoria. Of course that is building on the funding to the Traditional Owner Self-determination Scheme that we have already committed to. Our performing arts centre—the Geelong Performing Arts Centre—is an icon in Geelong. Everybody loves it. A member: GPAC. Ms COUZENS: GPAC; that is right. So in addition to the funding that we have already provided, around $37 million in past budgets, we have now committed $128 million to actually see the final stages of the GPAC redevelopment. The first stage is still under construction and due to finish, I think it is, at the end of this year. Then next year they will roll into the last stages and use that $128 million to provide the 500-seat drama theatre, a new courtyard, an experimental theatre space, a new box office and some refurbished office space. That really opens up the creative arts in Geelong. I know that Joel, the CEO, who recently came on board, is very excited about not only the redevelopment but engaging the creative community in Geelong, the arts community, bringing them in and ensuring that we are

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2425 creating some really exciting opportunities for them. The 1000 new dwellings, public housing properties, that were committed—some of those will come to Geelong. I am going to run out of time because there is so much that was committed to Geelong, but I will talk about Kardinia Park stadium—$102 million committed there. We know how important the stadium is to Geelong and the number of people it brings in on game day, and the economic opportunities that that brings. There is an upgrade to Grinter Reserve, a grassroots community club, and Geelong West Oval—$7.4 million. This is a significant oval that will be used during the grand final period. There has been, I suppose, lobbying for quite some time to get that. There is an upgrade to Herne Hill Reserve—$1.5 million. There is an upgrade to Thomson Recreation Reserve—$500 000. There are new paramedics for Geelong, the new emergency department at University Hospital, regional specialist appointments and the relocation of Barwon Health clinical facilities—$20 million. The Geelong women’s and children’s hospital will be fantastic for Geelong. We put in $10 million for planning, which is on track. Another $100 million is ready to flow when the planning is completed. These are really significant projects for Geelong and people are very excited about them. The new parenting centre in Geelong—again, for young parents who struggle, this is an opportunity for them to tap into those resources and the skills available to support them. The new VLocity trains for the regional rail network, the business case to fix the South Geelong tunnel bottleneck, the duplication of the Geelong line between South Geelong and Waurn Ponds stations, the removal of the level crossing at Fyans Street and Surf Coast Highway, the upgrade to South Geelong and Marshall stations and the Western Rail Plan—$100 million. Geelong has done very well. Mr T SMITH (Kew) (14:27): It is my pleasure to rise on the take-note motion for the 2019–20 Victorian budget. I will begin my remarks in a number of my portfolio responsibilities, particularly public housing. There has been very little growth in public housing over the last two decades in Victoria. According to a Productivity Commission report, public housing has remained at or around 65 000 units since 1997. Since that time Victoria’s population has grown by 1.46 million people, but the number of public housing properties owned by the director of housing has only increased by 89. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services states that in 2016–17 alone only 123 new public housing properties were constructed, but 106 were sold off, meaning only a net gain of around 17 homes. A recent Productivity Commission report found that Victoria spent the least of any Australian state on social housing. The commission said that Victoria’s expenditure equated to just $82.94 per person compared with $173 in New South Wales. For your interest, the national average in 2016–17 stood at $166. Victoria’s per person spending on social housing has also fallen each year since 2014–15, down from $95.92 per person. There are about 80 000 people in Victoria on the public housing waiting list, including 25 000 children, and I think all of us in this place would seriously regret those numbers and hope that they could be alleviated as quickly as possible. Labor has been in power for the best part of the last 20 years. Therefore why has it failed to increase our public housing stock in that time? I think that is a very important question that we should consider in this budget and over the forward estimates, because homelessness is rising, it is a scourge on our society and all of us in this place need to do all that we can to increase the public housing stock but also be considerate of those who are most needy in our society, which leads me to my next point. There was an opportunity recently to increase the public housing stock by rezoning the site of the former Corkman hotel into social or public housing. There was an opportunity to ensure that those crooks that demolished that historic pub could not make a cracker from their crime. Equally the state could have compulsorily acquired that site in Carlton abutting Melbourne University. Yes, it would have cost the state some money, but at its current undeveloped value that would be substantially less than the profit that the developers would have made with a 12-storey building in that part of Melbourne.

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Why did the Minister for Planning not use his significant powers to compulsorily acquire that site? Well, he said that he had to, if he was of a mind to acquire the site, acquire it at its highest and best value. Well, given that it is the planning minister that sets its usage and indeed its highest and best use or value, I found those comments rather curious, particularly as the planning minister set the controls for the site in question on 18 October last year and he provided an opportunity for a 40-metre tower. Now why did he not maintain the interim controls which provided that the former Corkman pub would have to be rebuilt in its entirety, as he told this place on a number of occasions, as he told the people of Victoria from 2016 on, as no doubt he told his mate, the member for Burwood, who was acting for the crooked developers who knocked over the site with no regard whatsoever— Ms Green interjected. Mr T SMITH: Well, it is a fact, member for Yan Yean. If you cannot accept that fact—and you are not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it doesn’t surprise me— The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Order! Member for Kew! Mr T SMITH: But, no, no— The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Order! Member for Kew! Order! I will take the point of order in a moment from the member for Yan Yean, but member for Kew, you should direct your comments through the Chair, and what you did say was reflecting fairly poorly upon the Chair. So I would ask you to apologise for that. Mr T SMITH: I would never say that about you, Acting Speaker. It was regarding the member for Yan Yean. Ms Green: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the Chair is aware that the member for Kew just made an extremely insulting comment about me, and I ask for it to be withdrawn. Further, I think it is pretty much below the belt for him to be allowed to make reference to the member for Burwood, which is why I interjected, when he is away ill this week. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): I will ask the member to withdraw the comments that the member took offence to. Mr T SMITH: I withdraw the comments that were made with regard to the member for Yan Yean. However, further to the point of order, Acting Speaker, if the member for Yan Yean is seriously suggesting that I cannot draw the house’s attention to a matter of significant public interest—and also a matter of fact—that the member for Burwood, before he entered this place, acted as a lobbyist for the two dodgy developers that knocked down the Corkman, then pardon me for just pointing out some simple facts on these matters. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Thank you, member for Kew. I am quite happy to rule on the point of order, and there is no point of order at this stage, so I will ask you to continue with your contribution. Mr T SMITH: Thank you, Acting Speaker, your wise counsel in these matters is always greatly appreciated. So we have a situation where a pub that had stood on that site since 1858 was knocked down by two crooks, and poor old planning minister in his usual befuddled state did not know quite what to do about it. I implored him to either rezone the property, compulsorily acquire it—do something! But his response to the— Ms Settle: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, this is a debate on the budget. This does not appear to have any relevance to the budget. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): On the point of order, I will not uphold the point of order at this point. The contribution on the budget is incredibly wideranging, and I will ask the member for Kew to continue with his contribution.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2427

Mr T SMITH: Thank you, Acting Speaker, and I am appreciative of that truly insightful ruling. As I was saying about that site and that complete debacle for our planning scheme, indeed the rule of law when it comes to the protection of heritage buildings in this state got completely thrown out the window and there was no tangible response from the Andrews Labor government, which is of great concern to all of us that care about heritage buildings and particularly about ensuring that planning rules are adhered to. The punishment for these characters has not been— Mr Dimopoulos: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member is required to be truthful and factual in his contribution, and when he said that there was absolutely no response from the Andrews Labor government in the affair of the Corkman pub, that was an absolute lie. The government took action against the developers—a $2 million fine and a whole range of other things covered by the Minister for Planning in this very chamber. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): I am quite happy to rule on the point of order. I do not uphold the point of order. There in fact is no point of order. What the member for Oakleigh is raising is a point of debate rather than a point of order, and I would ask for the member for Kew to continue. Mr T SMITH: Thank you, Acting Speaker. The member for Oakleigh suggested that I had lied then. It is disorderly to impugn another member of Parliament, and I ask that you ask him to withdraw. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Thank you. I will. Mr Dimopoulos: I withdraw. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Thank you, member for Oakleigh. Mr T SMITH: Thank you, Acting Speaker. So we have had no action whatsoever on the Corkman, and now we move to a grave issue of public policy that this government has again done nothing about, which is the cladding crisis. Now, this budget has only $160 million to remove cladding from hundreds of affected properties around the state, which are deathtraps for those that live in them. This is very concerning because people should be safe in their homes and these people have bought these properties in good faith. They have done absolutely nothing wrong. People misunderstand my criticism of this government with regards to this issue. Cladding has been a permitted building product for years in multiple jurisdictions. I hold no former planning minister in this state responsible for this current crisis, but we have a crisis. We have had one for some years now—five years—and there has not been a tangible response from this Labor government to fix it. What we need is a fund to assist people to remove this very, very dangerous material from their properties. I have been contacted by people from all of Victoria, whether it be in Frankston South, in Kew, in South Yarra, in Hawthorn. People who have mortgaged themselves to the hilt, have done the right thing, entered the property market only to find that the property that they have just purchased in recent times is now worthless because they received an order from the Victorian Building Authority (VBA) instructing them that they must at their own cost remediate this most dangerous material. I just think that is completely unfair. I had constituents of mine, the Excells, in Kew, come and see me. Mr Excell is caring for his wife, who is very unwell. They put all of their life savings—they retired—into this property, only to receive an order from the VBA and Boroondara council to suggest that not only is their property particularly unsafe but they will bear the cost of removing this cladding. The planning minister has said time and time again that he is waiting for a report from the cladding task force. Well, enough time has been spent on this; we need some action. We need some action, because people’s lives are at risk, particularly in those hundreds of properties that are at the higher scale of risk, and we need a response from the Andrews Labor government on this. We have had no response whatsoever in the time that the current planning minister has been in office. We have had an audit undertaken that is ongoing, as I am advised, but again no action to remove the cladding from

MOTIONS 2428 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 private properties—$160 million to get rid of cladding from the public realm, from public properties. And I note that the minister’s office at 8 Nicholson Street was one of the first buildings to have its cladding removed—and I am sure that that pleases the minister no end—but the people who have bought in good faith need assistance from this government and they are not getting any. If I could turn to some local issues: the North East Link will be devastating to the Koonung Creek Reserve in North Balwyn, to the Boroondara Tennis Centre, to Freeway Golf, to Belle Vue Primary School in my electorate. The expansion of the Eastern Freeway that will occur in conjunction with the construction of the North East Link will be hugely detrimental to the livability of those suburbs, and it is my great worry that Koonung Creek Reserve will be destroyed forever. We need an east–west link, and I note that the commonwealth government—and my good friend Josh Frydenberg—has put $4 billion on the table to ensure that the hundreds of thousands of extra cars that will be channelled down the Eastern Freeway after the construction of the North East Link will still end in a T-intersection at Hoddle Street, and so— Mr Taylor interjected. Mr T SMITH: I note the member for Bayswater behind me is chirping. He would do well to reflect on his position on this important road, because his constituents are sick of getting to the end of the Eastern Freeway at a T-intersection. Members interjecting. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Order! Mr T SMITH: I want to get through this, Acting Speaker, so it is all right. Members interjecting. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Order! Members! Member for Oakleigh! Mr T SMITH: So with the 1 minute that I have left, I would implore this Labor government and indeed—how would I describe the member for Oakleigh? He is a difficult individual at the best of times, but the Kew High School STEM centre is of supreme importance to my local community and indeed the community in Ivanhoe, where a lot of the students live. The Labor government promised last year $8.7 million for a STEM centre. The budget contains barely $1 million for generic upgrades. They matched my election promise last year. I call on them to make good on their promise to fund a STEM centre at Kew High School. This government is a government that is obsessed with class war, and I would hope that the great kids and teachers at Kew High School are not being punished because they are deemed to live in a so-called wealthy suburb. This government might reflect on its mantra to govern for all Victorians— Mr Dimopoulos interjected. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): Order! Member for Oakleigh. Mr T SMITH: not just those that it thinks it needs to please. I want to see a STEM centre at Kew High School as quickly as possible. Mr Morris: On a point of order, we have had two different moods in the chamber. When this side has been speaking there has been constant interjection. When the government side has been speaking there has been silence from this side. If we can continue with silence when both sides are speaking, that would be good, but I suspect this side may become much noisier much more quickly if the constant interjections from the government side continue. The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Spence): I thank the member for Mornington for what probably was not a point of order, but I do hear what he is saying. I cannot direct people to not start interjections,

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2429 and that becomes particularly difficult when they are being baited by the member on their feet. However, I do appreciate the sentiment of what the member is saying. Mr CARBINES (Ivanhoe) (14:43): Of course all politics is local, so I am going to start local. I will just rattle off a few of the very significant investments in the Ivanhoe electorate that we have worked hard both to secure as election commitments by working with the community and then of course to deliver in the most recent budget for 2019–20. In particular I want to commend Bill Kersing, the principal of Viewbank Primary School, and his team. I was there for a civics class. The students in grade 6 were just back from a trip to Canberra. They had the opportunity to meet the Governor-General when they visited Canberra and the federal Parliament just recently. We had a good discussion about civics and democracy, but in particular the $3.82 million redevelopment of those northern classrooms, which will get knocked over and rebuilt—asbestos-ridden as they are. It is a very significant investment at Viewbank Primary School, my brother’s old school and also a school with over 650 students that provides a great education in the Ivanhoe electorate. Macleod College was allocated $493 000 for the first stage of that $4.9 million project. We have got some planning work to do there at Macleod College. I am very pleased, and I know the college have worked very hard to secure our commitment in relation to the significant upgrade work we need to do at Macleod. It is a great community, a changing community in terms of that older demographic. As more families are coming through we do need to lift our investment and work at Macleod College, and that project can now get underway. We have heard mentioned Kew High School, and I am very pleased that the government has committed $1.08 million. It is a very significant project, a commitment of some $10.8 million by the Andrews government. We fought very hard to get that commitment. It might seem a bit out there because Kew High School is not of course in the Ivanhoe electorate, but I can assure the house that Ivanhoe Primary School and East Ivanhoe Primary School students flock to Kew High School. They get on the bus, they head across the Yarra River over the Chandler Highway bridge. The $110 million election commitment to widen the Chandler Highway bridge and complete the active transport underpass is being concluded now and that historic bridge is getting a final lick of paint to make sure that we do complete all the works there at the Chandler Highway bridge a bit later this year. It is a very significant project that was in the too-hard basket for too long under the previous coalition government. I am pleased to see that we have got the lanes open, we have got the underpass open for cyclists and we are just putting the finishing touches on that work. That leads me back to Kew High School, to which we have allocated just over $1.08 million in this budget. It is all about doing the planning works. It is a very significant project of $10.8 million. I am really pleased to have met last year the school captains at Kew High School. They both live in my electorate of Ivanhoe. That is evidence that this is a project that is not only important for the people of Kew but very important for the families in Ivanhoe who rely on an education just across the river at Kew High School. It has been a longstanding practice to educate many of the children from the southern part of my electorate over at Kew High School. I am pleased we will be able to get that project underway. The $15.8 billion North East Link has also been touched on. We have got a lot of work to do there. It is a very significant project. My electorate is effectively jammed right in between the Eastern Freeway and the Metropolitan Ring Road. To get between the two people use the Banyule area in the Ivanhoe electorate—Rosanna Road, Greensborough Road and Heidelberg Road. It cannot go on. Our government has made very significant commitments to address those issues and we were backed wholeheartedly at the election by the local community—absolutely staggeringly large support right across my electorate to see that that project gets underway. People are fatigued with the talk. They are fatigued with people’s issues with regard to putting it somewhere else. We went through the process. We took it to the election. We picked out the most

MOTIONS 2430 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 appropriate route. We did that work and research. We told people, ‘You will make that decision at the election’. Overwhelmingly they determined to support a very clear announcement from us that this would be the work that we do, and the particular community benefit across the Ivanhoe electorate is going to be the tunnel. That is a very significant commitment from our government to address and deal with the fact that we need to create this infrastructure in historic and existing communities. There is more work to do. We have got the environment effects statement later this year as that work concludes. I can assure you, just as we have made very significant commitments of over half a billion dollars for the next stage of the Hurstbridge line duplication from Greensborough right through to Diamond Creek and the upgrade of stations, all that work is about showing that we are walking and chewing gum at the same time. We are able to invest in the public transport that we need so that we can also invest in the road infrastructure that our community needs. We are very keen to make sure that in my electorate we reclaim local streets and local roads and that a lot of that through traffic and trucks get off our local roads. Taking 32 000 vehicles a day off Greensborough Road and 9000 a day off Rosanna Road and creating over 10 000 jobs through construction is absolutely significant. All it has been is talk for decades and decades, and that has been to the detriment of our community in the north-east. Along with the Speaker, the member for Bundoora, and others, we are going to ensure that the further work that needs to be done to get the best outcome for that project and manage that construction project in the best interest of local people continues. I was pleased to see that work continuing to be funded in the budget. I want to also touch on the $5 million for planning and construction of the path connecting Heidelberg and Rosanna stations. Of course in the previous term we committed nearly $400 million to do the work of duplicating that track between Heidelberg and Rosanna, removing the boom gates at Grange Road, Alphington, and removing the boom gates at Lower Plenty Road, Rosanna, as well as the duplication of the bridge over Burgundy Street and the duplication of the tunnel at Heidelberg. That is a very significant project, but I think it demonstrates why there is community confidence in our capacity as a government to deliver the half a billion dollar stage 2 of the Hurstbridge line upgrade further north, to the benefit in particular of my colleagues in Eltham, Bundoora and Yan Yean. We have delivered the stage at the southern end, between Grange Road at Alphington up to Lower Plenty Road in Rosanna— that project is completed. I was on the train again this morning with many local residents at Rosanna, where my electorate office is. People can touch and feel and see and believe in the benefits of us making a virtue of doing what we say we going to do, and they can have confidence in our capacity to continue to invest in the Hurstbridge line but also do the roadwork that needs to be done. Can I say also that there is $1.5 million for Olympic Park in West Heidelberg to continue the upgrade there, particularly for the Heidelberg United soccer club—or football club, depending on how you want to describe the code. But certainly for the world game and for the local people it is a very significant project to upgrade those facilities that of course were at the heart of the 1956 Olympics, and they certainly need some work. I want to say thanks also for the commitment of $130 000 to upgrade the Ivanhoe Golf Course, a very significant project at our public golf course, which is very popular, on the banks of the Yarra River in my electorate. The 1st Ivanhoe Sea Scouts have $100 000 in funding to upgrade their clubrooms and facilities, which is also critically important. I want to thank the team out there at the Assisi Centre aged care for our Italian community. In particular they have received a $625 000 grant to repurpose the use of Laveter House into a dedicated respite facility, which is also of critical importance to the local community. Ford Park in Bellfield will have a $1.5 million upgrade for the Ivanhoe Junior Football Club but also for many others that use those facilities. That is a very significant project, and I am pleased we were able to work with Banyule council to add further resourcing to some of these key local projects to make sure we get full bang for our buck. All of this is on top of $1.5 million for the Nets Stadium in Macleod, which will be expanded for netball, particularly for women in the community. There are lots of teams but not a lot of space to play, and we have made our commitments around that.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2431

An election commitment that was funded in this budget of course was the $700 000 upgrade of Livingstone Street in Ivanhoe to put in a signalised pedestrian crossing on Donaldsons Creek Reserve. This is very much the link between Ivanhoe Primary School across busy Livingstone Street. To get really significant community support, to demonstrate it to the Treasurer and to the Premier and to then get that financial commitment in the lead-up to the election and have it immediately funded at the first available opportunity in this budget has provided a great opportunity to make that area safe for local families and school students, and I know that that is a project that people are very committed to. Of course for the Rosanna shopping village, just around the corner from my home and just across the road from my electorate office, right down there at that fantastic level crossing removal at Lower Plenty Road and the new Rosanna station, we have also given a commitment for 40-kilometre reduced speeds and electronic flashing signs. That is in the Rosanna shopping village, and it is funded in this budget. That is absolutely what the local traders have been keen to see happen, and I am pleased we have been able to fund that. In a broader sense too, in my role as the Parliamentary Secretary for Health, I just wanted to touch on a couple of other aspects. One that has been critical and that I know has been well received in the community is the investment of over $321.9 million to deliver our promised rollout of free dental care to all Victorian government schools students, with the first school dental vans—Dan’s vans—to hit the road later this year. We all understand that oral disease is one of the most common and expensive diseases to treat. It is also one of the most preventable. The Smile Squad vans will give kids free dental care, including check-ups, radiographs, teeth cleaning, application of fluoride and dental sealants, fillings, root canals and impressions for mouthguards. Importantly too, the Banyule Community Health service do a great job in my community, no matter what the reason is for coming through the door—whether it is for health services or dental services, whether it is for legal advice, whether it is for a range of mental health issues or whether it is for financial advice or housing advice and support. We have been talking to people here about this free dental care for kids, and we are also going to pick up on other challenges that we need to meet in our community. I think we are going to find that this program will take a lot of pressure off families. When the pressure is on, financially in particular, it is often our oral health that pays the price. This will save families some $400 a year per child in dental costs as well as the inconvenience of taking time off work for appointments. There are a range of other very significant health initiatives in the budget, but I also wanted to give a bit of a shout-out in part to my new role that I picked up this week—responsibility for carers and volunteers, working with the Minister for Disability, Ageing and Carers—and particularly the election commitment that was made of nearly $50 million for respite care for carers and expanding that and providing greater opportunities to provide respite care for carers. This was a very significant and welcome commitment, and to see that funded in the budget is critical to providing more targeted, broader respite care for carers right across the state. I will have more to say about that work. I also acknowledge the financial contribution of our volunteers. Can you really put a value on it financially? But we are committed to working with them, and I will be spending some time with the key volunteer groups in Victoria tomorrow. We have made commitments in the budget around how we want to support them and grow our strategies and our targeted work to support volunteers in our community. One of the things that sets Victoria apart of course is the 1.5 million Victorians who volunteer their time. It is worth some $23 billion to our economy, but can you really put a price on the commitment and effort that people put in across our community? I also wanted to note the work in the past week with Men’s Health Week and our ongoing commitment as a government to addressing the isolation of men suffering in the community. Those men who do have the opportunity to be involved, whether it is in sport or whether it is in social clubs locally in the community, benefit from this. We need to get to more men in our community, to engage with more of

MOTIONS 2432 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 them in our community, so that they are connected. If they connected in their communities, then we can help address a lot more of their issues and engage them more in not only their mental and physical health but their opportunity to feel good about being engaged in the community where they live. Isolation, I think, is one of the key issues that we need to pick up on to address men’s health concerns, which are very significant in our community. Lastly, can I just draw attention to the fact that in my community we have worked so very hard to make sure that we continue to invest in and deliver the basics for people: that is, a good education, excellent health services, a job and a career and a future and a government that respects people, that demonstrates that we do make a virtue out of doing what we say we will do, that delivers on the commitments that we make to the community and that appreciates the affirmation just last November of the local community. It goes to the heart of us being able to deliver on the commitments we have made and ensuring that those commitments are the ones that are a priority for the local community. This budget goes every bit of the way to delivering on the affirmation received at the election last November. Mr TILLEY (Benambra) (14:58):I rise to make a contribution to the take-note motion on the 2019–20 budget. We heard a number of weeks ago from the Treasurer in his budget speech once again the word ‘fair’ and that everything this Labor government does in their conscience, in the deliberations they make, is about being fair. That is something I have taken significantly from the Treasurer’s speech, being one of the key words delivered by the Treasurer and handed down in that budget. But sadly, for 60 000 people in the Benambra district it seems ‘fair’ ends somewhere near the old Pentridge Prison, and the people of Benambra see that there is little fairness in the budget. There were promises for new trains, which came out a couple of days ago from Jaclyn Symes in the other place, but no specific detail about the new trains in the budget. Any line number, but they cannot say how, cannot say what, cannot say when, cannot say why. Moving on from the trains—I will talk about trains a little bit later on—this budget offers no consolation for the students suffering again at Wodonga Middle Years College, at the Huon campus. It is a budget that fails to add to the Wodonga public transport network yet again—20 years. There needs to be significant advancement for public transport to get people around a large, growing regional city. It is also a budget that ignores the promised $5.7 million that was ripped out of the Beechworth prison back when we saw kids on roofs and the repairs that needed to be done to not only the youth prisons but also to the metropolitan assessment prison. So what do you do? You turn around and you gut rural Victoria. Prison corrections have a long history in Beechworth, transitioning from an old prison site to the new one, where we are seeing prisoners that are about to re-enter society—they are at the end of their sentence—and there is growth in that. We want rehabilitation; we want these people coming off the back end of their lagging going back into society and maybe becoming contributors. Anyway, that $5.7 million that was ripped out of Beechworth prison has not been able to go ahead, and we would like to see that, four years further on, that funding is returned to make sure that the Beechworth correctional facility is able to cope with the demands there and the growth. It is also a budget that pumps billions of dollars, as we hear ad nauseam, into metro road projects whilst we are seeing the country road toll almost doubling in 12 months. It is also a budget that delivers no money for capital works at the largest health provider outside Geelong again. But for a government that preaches fairness, what is fair when you see a statutory body, a government, which is happy to shoot 100 brumbies from a rotary wing aircraft at Falls Creek while the feral deer population blows out to about three quarters of a million? It is an absolute waste of taxpayers money and an investment that could be better dealt with. Let us not forget it is just over 100 years ago that we sent Australian horses overseas and we were not able to bring them home, but here we are on our own land shooting these amazing animals that have a good heritage. I am not talking about those horses that have been let loose into the High Country or other places and that are turn of foot—the Mongols and the rubbish. We are talking about the great stock that was used—the

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2433 light horse, those with a feather around the hoof, a good strong neck, the Waler. That breeding and heritage can be maintained, but what is this government doing? Going out there on a rotary wing aircraft and shooting them—it is an absolute disgrace. But anyway, moving along, what is fair about spending $500 000 on a PR exercise to make gyms more female-friendly when you cannot find a single sporting club with club improvements in Benambra? Yes, it is not only the responsibility of the state government, but from every conversation I have with the local councils in the Benambra district—and there are four of them—they are trying tirelessly to work with the government of the day, trying to garnish and value-add to some of the sporting infrastructure they already have there. It has not been fair, and we need to see some of those taxpayers dollars moving to the Benambra district and country and rural Victoria. What is fair about a government spending $1 million on propping up significantly, before the last federal election, the federal Labor opposition at the federal election over a lack of commonwealth funding and then knocking back $4 million for a road project down here? I know personally from when I was posted in the army and I was working around those areas that just to get a job into the city we were leaving Watsonia at 5.30 in the morning to beat the traffic. This was back in 1987. The money is on the table; just build the bloody thing and get over yourselves. Anyway, moving on a little bit further because, yes, politics is not always necessarily local—the money that is spent in metropolitan areas has a significant impact on regional and rural Victoria. But what is fair about spending $11 million on a train and tram heritage project in Bendigo when you cannot say when you will retire the already out-of-date M-class trains on the north east line, the Warrnambool line, the Bairnsdale line and Swan Hill? It is just a simple disgrace. Talking about trains, we know that an election commitment of the Labor government promised 18 new trains for Ballarat and Geelong. In this budget the government used that promise as a headline act for regional rail and told us that the north-east line is included in those 18 trains, so somewhere there have been some significant untruths told. Because in the advice that you get there is no budget line specifically, there is no detail apart from a media release a couple of days later. But significantly, for those advocating for the north-east line—which is principally and understandably a freight line but we are sharing passenger services with New South Wales as well—it has been a long history. No doubt for those who have been in this place for a bit longer than the new, fresh government that was formed in this Parliament they have heard me going on quite a bit about passenger services. The trains that travel from Ballarat and Bendigo, they are basically a Sprinter service. They are about an hour’s run, whereas in the country, we need long-haul trains. We need a different train. They need other significant infrastructure such as the seating needs to be different, the buffet cars and there needs to be adequate, proper and appropriate toilet facilities because you are on those trains for quite a long distance and for quite some time. I know, Acting Speaker Richardson, that we shared a journey from Nuremberg to Düsseldorf in Germany once, where in fact we drank the bar dry there together. It was certainly a trip using a regional train service in Germany— Mr Hodgett: What happens on tour— Mr TILLEY: Yes, what happens on tour stays on tour. But anyway, he held up well. In saying that, they are the aspirations that we should be looking for in regional trains in Victoria. There is no reason why we cannot be using those trains at those speeds with those comforts, and where people can even imagine one day living in Wodonga or around the north-east of Victoria, travelling on one of those trains to Melbourne, having a meal and doing whatever and then travelling back home to the country again. This would solve a significant amount of the population problems and the congestion we have in Melbourne, and it is a damn sight cheaper than the money that needs to be invested in Melbourne for the long term. The prosperity for the state of Victoria could be achieved with a good policy such as that.

MOTIONS 2434 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Well, we will not go on about how you do not take advice from people or anything like that on my side of the house. Understandably there are people who live in those areas who have those aspirations. You do not have to listen to me; you do not have to listen to the opposition. Talk and listen to the people of Victoria who vote. They are telling me the same things; they are telling you the same things. I know they are telling you the same things. With all due respect, it is time to listen. There is no need for the arrogance that has been going on for so long. But anyway, I look forward to the detail. One of the problems that is recurrently occurring with the departure from Albury in New South Wales is that on the line to Wangaratta at the moment you cannot even get a latte, you cannot get a cup of tea. They have been banned by V/Line— A member interjected. Mr TILLEY: Well, whatever that milky, frothy stuff is you drink down here. They have got a few names. The thing is that on the XPT services out of New South Wales you can still have one of those warm drinks between Albury and Wangaratta, and that goes to show that the N-class trains and carriages are outdated. The Victorian Auditor-General also said that they were out of date and you cannot use them, so it is a combination. You cannot just blame the commonwealth government for the failure. They are already putting in; they are working towards a $235 million investment on those tracks, on the bridge works and those sorts of associated engineering solutions. We are getting there, but there is nothing insofar as remediating the problems for the commuting passengers on the north- east line at present being able to purchase a warm drink from the buffet car. In fact you would probably find that the conductors are stopping people from taking their own thermoses because of the suggested risk that they have. Mr Taylor interjected. Mr TILLEY: Well, that is right, you would not spend that much time on a train to know what a long-haul service is, mate. Anyway, you are more than welcome to pop up to the north-east and come and share some of the vibrancy in the outer regional parts of Victoria. Significantly, trains are a big issue for us, but so is health. I mentioned this morning, and it is ongoing, that last week I applauded bipartisan politics where health bureaucrats from New South Wales and Victoria—no, the parliamentary secretary is not here anymore—and their departments, federal representatives, even the new Independent in Indi were at the table. It was a terrific conversation and we look forward to working with the Victorian Labor government to match, for the sake of the health of the community of Albury-Wodonga and surrounds, a catchment of something like 200 000 people—the important funding for that catchment of 200 000 people around the north-east district. New South Wales have already stumped up $75 million, the federal government has stumped up for some mental health, which is on the master plan for the old Wodonga district hospital. It is not a big ask, but collectively and collegiately we are working towards the master plan for a health service that will provide great clinical outcomes for people in north-east Victoria. The health agreement itself the now Premier of Victoria signed off on. It is now reaching a decade; it has been working so well, so wouldn’t be a terrific celebration for him to work to ensure that his government ensures the success of Albury Wodonga Health into the long-term future? You do not have to talk to me, but certainly talk about getting and expediting that important funding necessary to get the construction underway. The agreement is just about ready to be signed off, the master plan is there, everything is ready to go. It is shovel ready. They just need the essential funding to get that project going so that we can make sure of it. In life, if you have not got your health you have got nothing much else. On that note and with the limited time I have left, there are a whole lot of things that I would have liked to have mentioned. I have bumped my gums for a fair while. On roads, significantly, there was a tragic fatality out at Sandy Creek recently. A young man going home from work on a Saturday afternoon tragically lost his life in the afternoon. Those are conversations I am having with government, and I look forward to those matters being expedited. But please, for the sake of country and rural Victoria,

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2435 find us some money and help us out because we are screaming for help; we are just screaming for help. Share some of that money that you are investing into metropolitan Melbourne. It is a great place to live, it is a great place to raise a family, it is a great place to work. But we need the support of a metropolitan and city-centric government. It is a damn shame. On that note, I look forward to hearing about and working to find some of those solutions until we hear about the next budget in May 2020. Ms GREEN (Yan Yean) (15:12): The member for Benambra was so impassioned, he could not even fill his whole time on the budget. I am happy to join the debate on the take-note motion on the budget. In terms of what this government has done for regional Victoria, particularly in relation to roads, one thing we did not do was cut $100 million from maintenance. This year’s road budget invests $104 million across the regional road network and with a slightly similar figure in the preceding year. When the member for Benambra and the member for Euroa say they are doing it tough in regional Victoria, well, if they were so concerned about it on their watch, how come the only two road projects that were completed that they claim credit for were the Geelong Ring Road project and Peninsula Link, both Labor projects that they merely cut the ribbons on. The hypocrisy of the Liberal and National party members just astounds me, but none more so than those who cover regional seats, because the best thing that you can do for regional communities is to ensure that they have got jobs. So what happened on their watch was no cuts to payroll tax, and this is the third budget in a row where we are cutting payroll tax. I remember in the previous sitting week I had the curious situation of one of the members on the coalition side saying in fact that it was them who started doing that. They are in a dream thinking that is what they did. It has been this government that has halved payroll tax two years in a row and now are scaling down to 0.25 per cent, 25 per cent of Melbourne’s. So we are not resting on our laurels. With the lowest unemployment rate in the country, we are not resting on our laurels; we are actually seeing that we can do even better than that by encouraging private sector investment in rural and regional Victoria. But it seems like, you know, those agrarian socialists do not really want to help the private sector unless it is to socialise the losses and corporatise the profits, which is as it has always been. But in the Yan Yean electorate it was a boom of a budget again. I just love this Treasurer, the member for Werribee. He listens to the advocacy put forward by members. In our last term we had a project worth in excess of half a billion dollars with Mernda rail. Just nine months in it has 1 million passengers and 2000 car parks and I am yet to see a day when those 2000 car parks have been fully subscribed. That is really unusual, and that is because we have got people cycling. All the cycling hoops at the three new stations are full. The Parkiteer cages are very well supported as well, and the bus network is just off the scale. Especially for a postcode like Mernda, which was in the top five for mortgage stress, I think that is a real indication that not only are we investing in giving people choice of public transport, cycling or getting the bus but that actually means that they can use those savings and maybe get rid of one car, or maybe say to the kids, ‘You don’t need to buy one, you can use public transport’. So that is a real investment in that community’s future and in their financial wellbeing. On financial and health wellbeing, one of the things I am really proud of is the return of dental vans. We know that poor dental health is one of the biggest causes of long-term ill health and chronic disease. So to return these dental vans to all government primary and secondary schools across the state is a fantastic thing which on average will save families about $400 a year. But importantly so many households have both parents working and if a child has to go to the dentist, it means a day off work. Last week I caught up with a good friend Dijana and her three kids at Mernda Central College. We did a bit of a photo shoot, all with our toothbrushes there. She told me that Lewis had been to the dentist only a couple of weeks earlier and it was $190 just for a clean. Lewis is about 9. I think the kids are in grade 4, grade 2 and starting school next year; I think Lewis, Emily and Angelina are the

MOTIONS 2436 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 names of the kids. The family are saving for a holiday to Disneyland. They were adding up the numbers when I said, ‘This will probably save you $400 for each child’; they were seeing the dollar signs—it was happening for the kids more than Mum because they thought they would reach their goal of getting to Disneyland earlier. The baby bundles, the pads and tampons in schools—these are all things that just help families with the daily necessities of life, and it should not be that because you are a female you have to have this impost. I know the feminist community fought for a long time to get the GST taken off these products. Despite that, they are a real impost on women and girls, and it is a really equitable thing to support young women in this endeavour to ensure it is not an impost. I mentioned the Mernda rail project. We have also done the Hurstbridge rail line stage 1 in our first term. The member for Ivanhoe talked about that before. But we are doing the Hurstbridge line stage 2, which will mean duplicating 4.5 kilometres of track and the construction of bigger and better stations at Greensborough and Montmorency. It will mean that we have 6.5-minute peak-hour services from Greensborough, 10-minute services from Montmorency and Eltham, and 20-minute services from Diamond Creek, Wattle Glen and Hurstbridge. I caught the route 343 bus this morning. I had just missed the train, but I thought, ‘Never fear, the 343 bus is here’. It goes directly to Greensborough, so I was able to connect to the train at Greensborough station, which has more frequent services. But having that 343 bus and the 20-minute peak services from my neck of the woods in Diamond Creek effectively means that people will be getting 10-minute services when you add in the 343 bus, which also services St Helena and the Greensborough TAFE. Free three-year-old kinder is another equity measure and an investment in children’s futures. For those members who have been articulating in their contributions on the budget papers take-note motion that this is a government that does not care about regional Victoria; if you look at three-year-old kinder, nothing could be further from the truth because we are not starting out in the western suburbs, the south-eastern suburbs or the northern suburbs, as wonderful as those places may be. We have looked at where the greatest area of need is, where there is need for early intervention, where there are minimal childcare services. We heard this in particular from the Wimmera region, the Northern Grampians and the far west of the state; they recommended that there needed to be some clustering of kindergartens and some better connectivity to schools as a project through the regional partnerships process. That then grew into an idea across the state. So the places where we are rolling it out first next year are places like Yarriambiack, like Buloke, like the Northern Grampians region. Then in the second year we will roll it out to other places, particularly areas that have been disaster prone whether through flood or fire, places like Murrindindi and other areas that have been doing it tough. In the year following it will be statewide. To support that we are not just going to sit back and say, ‘Oh, there are not enough teachers’; we are actually expanding on our free TAFE offer by adding kindergarten teaching to that list of free TAFE courses. But there are also $9000 scholarships to ensure that we can get those professionals into rural and regional areas. I mentioned the Hurstbridge rail upgrade stage 2. That will untangle some snarls at the Clifton Hill interchange with the Mernda rail corridor there. Hurstbridge rail stage 2 will in fact deliver six additional daily peak services on the Mernda line. I know that in particular the member for Northcote and the constituents of Northcote and Yan Yean collectively are the ones that will benefit from that the most, because I think ours are the only electorates that have both of those lines within our boundaries. That will be just fantastic. Obviously the other elephant in the room is the $15.8 billion North East Link—the missing link. We are delivering this much-needed road and making this road project a reality. That is on top of last year’s northern roads package. Yan Yean Road is almost completed, the Plenty Road duplication has gone out to market, but we could do even more if we had cooperation from the federal government.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2437

We are barely hitting double figures in terms of their contribution to infrastructure in Victoria. Over the next five years this government is going to spend more on infrastructure in Victoria than the federal government is spending across the whole country. So I really call on the Liberal and National Party members in this house to use their good offices with their friends in Canberra. I know that they had a bit of a panic before the election, the Canberra crew, and so they have upped Victoria’s contribution to 17 per cent in the out years. We are 25 per cent and rapidly growing, so we need more than that. We are getting things done in infrastructure and we are training people so we have got the workforce to deliver on these projects. Some of the regional members were criticising our rail projects in the centre of town, but do not tell me for one minute that the airport rail link is not going to benefit rural and regional travellers and also allow travellers—the visitor economy—to go directly from Melbourne Airport out to our regions. Our airport rail link is not the chimera that members opposite had. Theirs was a billboard. It was a chalk outline on the ground outside Southern Cross station under the Baillieu-Napthine governments. This is actually real and it is going to be viable, unlike a lot of rail projects that are actually not that profitable. They are the right thing to do but they are costly. However, if you connect a link like this into your regional rail, then you really bring home the bacon with a project like that. We are also delivering cycling infrastructure—the Plenty River Trail extension, a 21-kilometre route from the M80 to Bridge Inn Road at a cost of $19.3 million. I did mention health earlier, and getting people more active is better for their health, better for our health budget and also eases congestion. I note that in last year’s budget there was $4 million for the long-awaited Diamond Creek Trail from Diamond Creek to Hurstbridge. The federal Labor opposition committed $4 million to that end as well. I absolutely call on the federal government that was elected to government recently to match that commitment because the community has been waiting 15 years for this. Peter Brock and I kicked off the campaign in about 2005 and we are still waiting. Nillumbik council is only going to be able to build the trail from Diamond Creek to Wattle Glen. I know that the mayor has been in Canberra this week, so any of the Liberal and National Party members, if you could have a word in the shell pinks up there, we will be able to deliver on that project too. We are also delivering for the Diamond Valley stadium. We have got a myriad of projects in the northern part of my electorate as well. It has just been a fantastic budget for every part of the state. It is a great delight to be speaking on it, and I commend this take-note motion to the house. Mr D O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (15:27): It is a pleasure to rise belatedly to speak on the budget papers take-note motion. As Acting Speaker Richardson, who now departs the chair, is well aware, we have been actively engaged in a fair bit of interrogation of the budget already through our role as members of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. But this is the opportunity to talk about the budget and its impact, particularly in our own electorates. I want to begin by talking immediately about all the election commitments made by the Labor Party to the electorate of Gippsland South and how they have been delivered on in the budget. Okay, I have covered that now. That was all of it because there was literally zero—not one single election commitment from the Labor Party for the electorate of Gippsland South, not one single thing delivered for the electorate of Gippsland South. We have just heard the usual preening diatribe from the member for Yan Yean saying what a wonderful budget it was for regional Victoria. Well, I am sorry, but not in Gippsland South. This is what it was all about. I should not be quite so negative. There are in fact two items in the budget that might relate to Gippsland South. The first is three-year-old kinder, as the member for Yan Yean talked about. South Gippsland shire is one of those areas where three-year-old kinder is being rolled out. The second is that we have single-officer ambulance stations in Yarram and Foster and they will be increased to two- officer stations—that is it. That is all there is in the entire $70 billion-odd of this state budget for the electorate of Gippsland South. So when I hear those opposite, particularly those who purport to be

MOTIONS 2438 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 rural and regional members, saying that they are delivering for rural and regional Victoria, that rings pretty hollow in the electorate of Gippsland South because there has been almost zero done there. We obviously have been the beneficiaries over the last eight or nine years of the Regional Growth Fund and more latterly the Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund. Indeed it was my predecessor as the member for Gippsland South, Peter Ryan, as Deputy Premier who established the Regional Growth Fund with $1 billion over eight years. That funded a significant amount of major projects in my electorate. What have we seen in this budget? It is axed. It is cut altogether. There is no fund going forward. There is no Regional Jobs and Infrastructure Fund. There is no Regional Growth Fund. There is no fund of any sort for regional development in this budget, and that is absolutely a shame because that money did good things not just in terms of developing jobs and opportunities in the economy in our regions but particularly in upgrading community infrastructure and providing the community infrastructure and maintenance works that are so critical. We saw nothing for drought-affected farmers in Gippsland. The government has made some announcements. They have been variously described as a ‘slap in the face’ and ‘too little, too late’. Yes, they were previously announced, but going forward there is nothing beyond 30 June for drought- affected farmers in my electorate. The Nationals member in the other place, Melina Bath, asked the Minister for Agriculture about this the other day in the other place and whether she will be extending those support mechanisms beyond 30 June, because that is critical. We have not actually had much rain in Central Gippsland. There has been an average rainfall month in May, but average only in most areas, and we have been way, way below average. So the drought continues, and even if the rains do come—and they are not forecast to—this issue will still be one that we will be grappling with for some time yet, so I do encourage the government to ensure that that assistance is still available beyond 30 June. My favourite project, particularly to talk about in the context of this budget, is the Princes Highway duplication between Traralgon and Sale—and I say ‘favourite’ with tongue firmly planted in cheek, because this Labor government likes to stand up regularly and lecture us about lack of infrastructure funding from the federal government. That is galling to me and to my constituents, particularly in Central Gippsland and Sale, because there is $132 million on the table from the commonwealth government. That is its 80 per cent share of the final two stages of the Princes Highway duplication. This has been a bipartisan project for nearly 10 years now, at both state and federal levels. It has been supported until now—because the Andrews Labor government, despite being in power now for four and a half years, has delivered not a single cent to this project, which has now run out of money, and the final two stages are waiting to be completed because there is no money. Not only that, if you go to the budget papers you will find that the Princes Highway duplication between Traralgon and Sale is actually listed by this government as a completed project. So not only have they not provided the money, they have realised there are two stages still to go but they have actually listed it in the budget as a completed project. I went into the budget with low expectations and they were absolutely met on this score, because we had heard previously from the Treasurer, the roads minister and the transport infrastructure minister that this budget would be about delivering on election commitments, and as I said, from the outset there were no election commitments in the electorate of Gippsland South. So pardon me, but when the Premier stands up and says he is going to govern for all Victorians I find that a little bit hard to believe, because I do not see him governing for my part of the state. In particular—if I can go back to drought briefly—we have had that drought. It has been officially declared since August last year. It has been going for a lot longer than that in some parts—particularly the area south of Sale, where they are into their third year of record low rainfall now—and the Premier has not been to my area. We have had the agriculture minister, and I give her credit for that, both the current minister and the previous one; we have had the shadow Minister for Agriculture and Leader of The Nationals; we have had the Leader of the Opposition; we have had the federal agriculture

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2439 minister; we have had the federal Deputy Prime Minister, and indeed he as the acting Prime Minister is there again today; and we have had the Prime Minister; but we have still not seen the Premier in this region. What is particularly galling and is noticed by my constituents and particularly the farmers is that since the drought was declared the Premier has visited the Latrobe Valley five times, but not once has he got past Traralgon to actually come and visit our drought-affected farmers. So when he gets up there and sneers about the Prime Minister for Sydney, I think it is pretty rich. The Prime Minister for Sydney has actually been to drought-affected areas of Gippsland and offered some genuine support. The Premier for Melbourne has not. I mentioned the axing of the Regional Growth Fund. Obviously this comes off the back of the axing of the Country Roads and Bridges Fund when the Labor government came to power and at the last minute last year put in a substandard program that certainly does not go anywhere near to supporting our rural and regional councils with their roads issues. That is continued in this budget. We discovered in the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC) just last week not only that but with the rollout of wire rope barriers across the state—which has been very poorly handled, with barriers put in the wrong place, too close to the sides of the road and a whole rank of other problems—we have now been told by VicRoads that indeed road maintenance money is being used to repair those barriers, when previously we were led to believe that it was entirely TAC funds. That is also a significant failing. Continuing in my electorate, we are waiting for funding for a full rebuild of Korumburra Secondary College. It has still not been delivered. There is the Foster Primary School as well. It was good to see the first parts of that happening, and I think the new prefabricated buildings arrived this week at Foster, which is great, but the full rebuild of the school is not occurring. We are still waiting to see any commitment to the CFA, particularly the fire stations in my electorate—the Foster fire station, the Mirboo North station and the Yarram station—all of which are in desperate need of a rebuild. More broadly, we have seen that this is a budget where debt is doubling and taxes are up. I am particularly concerned as to the growing size of the expenses column in the budget, and we did ask the Treasurer during PAEC about that. Let us just ponder this for a moment. When you are looking at the assumptions made in the budget about what the out years are going to be and how the budget is going to be kept in surplus, I need you to ponder this. In the 2015 budget the Treasurer forecast that wages expenses—public sector expenses for salaries and wages—would grow by 12 per cent over those four years. They actually grew by 42 per cent—42 per cent between the pre-election economic and fiscal outlook in 2014 and this year’s budget. The Treasurer is now saying that he will keep those public sector expenses to 10 per cent over the next four years. So we have been asked to believe that the government will keep spending under control, and I think it beggars belief that they will do that. Even today, we have got news from the Rail, Tram and Bus Union stepping up asking for a 6 per cent pay rise. So we hear what the Treasurer says. He talks tough on public sector pay rises, but when it comes to actually delivering he is a damp squib. So let us see what actually happens over the next few years and whether the Treasurer can in fact keep the budget under control. As I said, this is a budget that has delivered almost literally nothing for the electorate of Gippsland South. We are seeing taxes increased and we are seeing the debt doubled—and that is a significant concern to my electorate when we are getting nothing for it. Mr EREN (Lara) (15:38): Well, they had allocated another 4 minutes and the member for Gippsland South decided not to take it. Mr D O’Brien interjected. Mr EREN: There is plenty to say, my friend. This is a great budget, yet again. This is a fantastic budget. They need a good member down that way. That is why you did not get much in the budget. Maybe that is the problem.

MOTIONS 2440 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Anyway, we certainly on this side of the house are very happy with this budget. We have been happy for the last five budgets, obviously, where we have seen the state grow—grow in terms of population and grow in terms of the economy—and of course that does not happen by accident. We were in government between 1999 and 2010, and the good people of Victoria thought that it was a long-term government. The tradition of this state is that if you have been in for a long term, people want to make a change. They were not very happy. They thought, ‘We’ll make a change’, and they changed one seat. We then saw, between 2010 and 2014, the Liberal-Nationals government drive the state into the ground. People saw that not only in terms of their behaviour in this place but also in terms of their lack of investment. There was nothing happening. There were no cranes in the sky, the economy was faltering, the economy was slowing down, and the people of Victoria said, ‘Oh no, we’re going to bring back a Labor government’, and so they did in 2014. We were very pleased to come back after only one term. Since then we have not looked back. Again there is a misconception about Labor and finances. The other side of the chamber like to portray Labor as not good with the economy. Well, have we proven them wrong. In the time that we were in government between 1999 and 2010 every single budget was in the black, in surplus, even through those years of the global financial crisis, which crippled not only many nations across the globe but many states across the nation and our neighbours around our region. They were devastated. Yet what we did was manage the economy the best that we could. We still sustained our economic growth and investment continued. Since 2014 we have been to two elections. On both occasions the communities of Victoria totally endorsed our plan of economic growth, totally endorsed our plan of investment in education, totally endorsed our plan of investment in our health system. When you look at what we have done for TAFE, that was totally endorsed in the second round of elections we had just in November last year—they fully endorsed us with a majority. That is not gloating; that is the fact of the matter. Victorian communities have seen the work that we have done and said, ‘We want to give them another go’. We are very fortunate to have such a talented side that comes up with the goods all the time. I have got to congratulate the Treasurer. There is no question: he has done it again, and with minimal impact on the communities. When we consider the fine-tuning of policy and how to least impact the community in terms of taxation or charges—and people do not like taxes, obviously—what we try to do is not burden Victorian communities with that but burden some of those other people that are trying to profit from our state, like overseas investors in property, for example. They do not live here, they do not work here. What they do is they see an opportunity where there is a strong growth in the economy of this state. They want to be a part of it and they want to buy property, so they have to pay an extra levy to have that privilege. On ports, for example, there were multibillion dollars just sitting there. We accessed that by making sure that we had a system in place where we could continue the good work of the ports but not be burdened. The investments that needed to happen would only happen through the interests of the private sector. We managed to find a way through to maximise that asset and make it fully utilised by the community in terms of investments that we are making into the community. They are just a couple of examples of how we have increased our expenditure without actually adding a burden to residents in our state. That is what good treasurers do and that is what good governments do. I have got to congratulate the Premier, of course, on leading in all of that. We are very fortunate to be part of a government that is not only investing in the now but investing in the future—because God help us all, if they were still in government, we would be in gridlock by now—through the infrastructure work that is going on at the moment, not only in the growing areas of Melbourne and the suburbs, but indeed in regional Victoria. I would like to point out that in the time of the previous government between 2010 and 2014 some $7 billion was expended in regional Victoria. We have almost doubled that to just under $14 billion of expenditure in regional Victoria, because we do not subscribe to what the Jeff Kennett government

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2441 said about regional Victoria, calling it the ‘toenails’ of Victoria. We do not think it is the toenails. Indeed we think this is a wonderful opportunity to showcase regional Victoria and make sure that we can expand the population in regional Victoria in a sustainable way by making sure that the steady investments are happening right across the state. Victoria is the most popular state, with the fastest growing population, and yet we do not get the money from the federal government. I wish those on the other side could actually ring up some of their colleagues, like Josh Frydenberg, and say, ‘Hey, Josh, what about giving us our fair share of the GST? What about giving us a fair share of the infrastructure spend?’. That is what I would be doing if I was in the opposition here, and claiming that potentially. We do not mind, but what we do need is a federal government that is willing to add value to the investments that we are making. We are proud to say that over the next decade—and I have heard the Treasurer say this on a number of occasions—we will invest more into infrastructure than the federal government will nationally. That $100 billion of investment into infrastructure over the last decade or so means that we actually have a pipeline of works. We intend to invest more in infrastructure than the federal government. I find that quite odd. I would imagine that as a national government you would want to be a part of the success stories in Victoria. For example, when federal Labor lost government in 2006 there was investment of roughly around $20 billion in terms of our share of infrastructure spend. When the Liberal-Nationals coalition took over it went down to just over $7.5 billion. We have 25 per cent of the population, and yet we do not get 25 per cent of the money that we need to build our infrastructure for our growing population. So there is a lot of work that the opposition can do. It can do some good. All they need to do is pick up the phone. Instead of complaining, ‘I didn’t get anything for Gippsland South’ or ‘I didn’t get anything for Croydon’, what they can do is actually encourage their federal colleagues, by saying, ‘Hey, listen’, like with Gonski. I am really pleased that there is an additional $7 billion that we will get now because we fought all the way. Our Minister for Education fought tooth and nail in making sure that we got the most out of the federal government for our expenditure on education, because it is the most important thing for us. We have now managed to extract an additional $7 billion from the federal government and obviously that is going to be great. It is co-partnering, and that is the right thing to do. It is a smart federal government. They have worked it out. This is the plan of the federal government because they will be up for election before us. They will be up for election at the latest in May 2022, and of course our elections are set in November every four years, so they are going ahead of us. What they have now worked out is that there is a really popular Victorian government that is spending $100 billion over the next decade. They are looking at how they can make minor investments into that and do the ribbon cutting when their election time comes. That is what they are up to. We get it—and that is pragmatic. They say, ‘We’ll give you $2 billion for the fast rail for Geelong’—$2 billion! It is a project that is going to cost well over $10 billion. It is not even in the budget; it is in the never-ever— like we are never going to see that money. What the federal government is trying to do is actually capitalise on our strategy to grow this state. Of course when you think about their election, they were fortunate—and I congratulate the federal government on winning that election—but we would have got a lot more out of a Labor government federally, and I am sad that we have not got a federal Labor government. But they have worked it out. They are now more inclined to have a partnership with Labor in this state—because it is capitalising on their votes—than they are to work with the opposition. I am sure the opposition are not very happy about some of these massive investments that the federal government is making. But anyway, I digress. I want to reiterate the point that within my region and that of the Acting Chair, the member for Geelong, we are very happy with the investments, as of course is the new member for South Barwon. One of the reasons why we have got the new member for South Barwon is the policies leading up to the November election last year, and obviously I congratulate him. It is about having the people’s confidence, it is about the investments, the pipeline of works and what can be believed. People can

MOTIONS 2442 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 actually see tangible evidence that this government is getting on with it. Are they stuck in traffic because of roadworks? Yes, but they get it. They understand that if these roadworks do not happen now, that within three or four years we are going to be gridlocked. So people get it, and that is why they made the determination in November of last year. They said, ‘Yeah, I know there is congestion at the moment and there’s lots of roadworks going on and stuff like that, but this is a government that’s making things happen’. I have got to say that I have been a Geelong resident for a long time but I have never seen so many cranes in the sky and buildings being built, and of course they are not only in Melbourne but in regional Victoria. So there is a pipeline of investments and there is confidence. During the time after we lost office in 2010 there were record unemployment rates in regional Victoria. They went to over 8.5 per cent, roughly, and of course we were worried. We were worried at the prospect of Ford shutting down. We were worried at the prospect of Alcoa shutting down. We were worried about the traditional manufacturing decline, and we were worried, in terms of the Geelong region, about its health and economic wellbeing, because if you do not have a strong economy in Geelong, you cannot have a strong economy in the state. Geelong is the second-largest city in the state, so we were really concerned. With a bit of nous, with a bit of experience and with a bit of strategic investment, we have managed to change the economic landscape of Geelong and the region. We moved the Transport Accident Commission, for a start; we moved WorkSafe Victoria; and then of course there is the move of the federal National Disability Insurance Agency. All of those key investments now see us with an unemployment rate of less than 5 per cent, and that is good. From my former role as the Minister for Tourism and Major Events, I know that tourism is worth about $1.1 billion to our economy in the broader Geelong region and it is growing with the investments that we are making in the City Deals program. We went from $153 million to $191 million, with some matching funding from the federal government and a bit of money of course from the council, which will mean we will build that convention centre and we will make the investments that we need to make in that great asset which is the Great Ocean Road, not to mention the other investments that we have made in health. Personally, the most exciting part of the budget for me was the $3.5 million I received for Rollins Primary School. They were so happy when I made the announcement. I went to their assembly and saw all of those kids, and the teachers had tears in their eyes. It is just magnificent what we are doing for education in this state, with record investment yet again. The Education State is on the numberplates and we know the importance of it. I want to put on the record, and I subscribe to this in relation to how meaningful it is, something from Facebook, which was: ‘What if the cure for cancer was in the mind of a child that couldn’t afford education?’. What if? That is why we need to make our education system accessible to all. In the 8 seconds that I have left, yet again millions of dollars were invested in my electorate. I am so proud of this government, and I thank the Treasurer and the Premier. Mr HODGETT (Croydon) (15:53): It is a pleasure to follow the member for Lara and just correct him on some of the good things happening out in my electorate of Croydon. Mr Richardson interjected. Mr HODGETT: The lamb shanks were delicious in the cabinet cook-off, from the good member opposite, the member for Dandenong. I would like to commence my budget speech today just by congratulating my federal neighbours the member for Deakin and the member for Casey and the Morrison government on their outstanding election victory and for returning excellent government to Australia. I do say that with all sincerity, because they made a number of pre-election funding commitments and indeed a number of election funding commitments that will enormously benefit my area and without which, with the most recent state budget, we would not be getting much in the way of improvements out our way at all. With the federal members for Deakin and Casey both injecting money through their election processes, we will do all right with a few local projects.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2443

I did want to use my contribution just to focus on my local electorate of Croydon rather than touch on my shadow portfolio responsibilities of tourism, sport and major events, because we use other parliamentary processes to raise matters with the minister and to remind the government where we need support for a number of projects in those areas. We certainly raised a couple of matters at the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee hearings, albeit the time was quite short there, but we have put a number of questions in post-PAEC, and I look forward to having discussions with the Minister for Sport, Tourism and Major Events on some of those areas. Having said that, I did want to touch on one area before I move to my local electorate, that being the area of soccer— Mr Eren: Football. Mr HODGETT: Football, soccer—there are growing demands in that area. I note the government committed $200 000 for a feasibility study for the development of a home for the Matildas, our national women’s soccer team, who are of course in the news at the moment with the World Cup being on—and it is very, very exciting. The feasibility study, as I understand it, is now underway, and I noted that our Premier did tweet his support for the project and that Football Federation Australia chair Chris Nikou endorsed Victoria as the best option for the Matildas’ home base. I think it would give both sides of the house enormous pleasure if the Matildas were to make their base in Victoria, which is very exciting. We might get it in Croydon. We might get it in Lara. We might get it in Casey Fields. We can fill them up on lamb shanks, Minister. That would be exciting. I think that would be fantastic news. But I notice there is no money in the budget this year or over the forward estimates for the development of a home for the Matildas, so I draw that to the minister’s attention. I just quiz him on that and about where some support might be. Having said that, I understand the government is waiting on findings from the feasibility study for more detail, but it would be good if the minister or indeed the government could give us an indication of what funding the government is expecting to allocate overall towards this project and time lines for works commencement and completion. As I said—I will go back to my previous point—it would give us no greater joy across both sides of the divide here than to have the government announce that, have it funded and have the Matildas based here. We would not want to lose that to another state, and we all know that trying to attract them is very competitive. It is worth noting again that the federal government has committed $15 million towards this project, so it has got a bit of backing behind it. It would be great to have some sort of certainty around that. The other issue in the budget that I note is that the government has announced $21.6 million for local football, for local soccer—football—community club facilities. I also note there are news reports and data around saying that with our population growth and the ongoing rise in population rates football will need the equivalent of another 420 full-sized pitches by 2026. I would be interested in what plans the government has when it comes to increasing the World Game Facilities Fund to meet the growing demand. Even locally, out my way in Croydon—as the Acting Speaker departs and the Deputy Speaker takes the chair—Deputy Speaker, even out my way there are waiting lists and queues for people trying to get into soccer clubs to play. The demand for local facilities around the Maroondah City Council area is enormous, and they are investing in various facilities. I heard the member for Evelyn raise in her contribution an election commitment—both sides, the Andrews government and the member for Evelyn made this commitment—for some investment in facilities for the Mooroolbark Soccer Club, which is actually in the electorate of Evelyn, but as we know our electoral boundaries do not necessarily match where people live and where they go to play sport. No doubt some of my constituents will benefit from that investment in the Mooroolbark Soccer Club, which they will be pleased to see after having been patient for many years, lobbying and advocating for support for some funding towards that ground and their facilities there. It would be good to see that they are actually going to be delivered. I will leave that for the sport portfolio. I would be interested in having

MOTIONS 2444 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 some further conversations with the minister about those very important projects and about soccer or football in general. Turning to my local electorate, I will raise a number of matters. First and foremost the budget did fund stage 3, the final stage, of Melba Secondary College. That school community has worked enormously hard over a number of years to secure funding for the total rebuild of Melba Secondary College. It has been a project that has gone over a long, long time, and that school community will be relieved, enormously relieved, that they will get that final stage of funding so they can finish that school off. It is something I have worked very closely with them on over a number of years. I have advocated to the Minister for Education who, with credit to him, has kept me up to date and invited me along when he has done various things out there. That school community will be pleased that they will be able to finish that project off. It will be another one we are able to tick off in terms of investment in schools in Croydon, and I am pleased to have worked closely with the school community to get that project done. The level crossing removal for Mooroolbark is a matter of concern. It was a promise made by the Premier in 2014 to remove the Manchester Road level crossing in Mooroolbark. Five years later, the Andrews government has delivered successive budgets yet has not funded a single dollar for the removal of this crossing. Every ALP candidate pre and post the 2014 election has campaigned on the issue but has not been elected, and the project seems to drop off the government’s radar after the election. I keep a close eye on it, as I know the member for Evelyn does, because it is between our electorates. Indeed the member for Monbulk I think has a keen interest in it, given that he has some of his electorate in Mooroolbark. There seems to be a bit of activity around there, but it would be good to get a clear timeline on funding and what the level crossing removal was going to look like so we can report that back to the local community. The City of Maroondah—and this is not on the government’s list—is also advocating very strongly for the removal of the Croydon level crossing, and with the Croydon railway station car park being delivered it might be time to do those projects together. Who knows, that might be able to be packaged up with the Lilydale crossing removal and the Mooroolbark crossing removal so we are able to get the Croydon one done as well, but the Maroondah City Council is very strong on it as it is a local project. Car parking: indeed we have raised the need for investment in car parking at railway stations around various election times and at various times in this house. There was a commitment by the government for another 450 car parks for commuters at the Mooroolbark station. Mooroolbark residents will benefit from that. Again we know that there is increased pressure. Once upon a time you could go down to the local railway station around 7 or 7.30 and be guaranteed a car park. Now, if you are not down there by 6 or 6.30 you cannot get one. The car parking spills over into shopping centres or into residential streets—the traders are annoyed when the shopping centre car parks fill up and residents are annoyed when people park in the local street. We all know the story. Invariably we need investment in car parking, so I will watch with interest to see that 450-space car park be delivered for Mooroolbark residents. Roads and road congestion continue to be a problem in my electorate. One of my commitments in Croydon was to upgrade the congested Maroondah Highway–Yarra Road–Kent Avenue intersection. It was a real disappointment to find no funding allocated in the 2019–20 state budget. Residents are sick and tired of sitting in traffic and pedestrians are worried about their own safety at some of these intersections. When it was announced, it was very well received by residents in Croydon Hills and Croydon North—it is their main access and egress route in and out of that estate. It is an important intersection, one that requires investment. I think it is the number one priority on the Maroondah City Council’s list. I will continue to fight for, work towards and advocate for that project to get up. There was no funding for Dorset Road and there was no funding for Plymouth Road. Again the hardworking federal member for Deakin, Michael Sukkar, championed calls for some funding there and it will be good to see that there will actually be some money spent on roads in my electorate, albeit federal money, on both Dorset Road and on Plymouth Road, Croydon Hills. We have already seen the

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2445 upgrade of the intersection at Dorset Road, Maroondah Highway, and Exeter Road in Croydon, which again was all federal money. If I could turn my attention to sporting facilities. I, like most members of this place, spend a lot of time with our sporting clubs—not just cricket, footy and netball, but various clubs. We have got gridiron, tennis, bowling, bowls—all of those sorts of sporting clubs—in our electorates. There is growing demand for investment in local facilities that need government support for those local projects which are becoming real priorities. With growth in demand, particularly in women’s sports—and again it is not just soccer, but I will turn my attention to the example of soccer—you have got clubs that were built 30, 40 and 50 years ago that have predominantly male change room facilities and open showers with no doors on them. You have women’s teams that have come along now. I am familiar with a women’s soccer club where basically girls and women get changed in their cars or actually walk through the men’s change rooms into the toilets to get changed. That is just not acceptable in this day and age, so we need investment in those clubroom facilities. Over time we have been able to improve ground surfaces, ground lights and ground drainage, but we now need government support for investment in facilities. The particular ones that I have been advocating very strongly for are at Ainslie Park, and Esther Park, as the member for Evelyn mentioned, where Mooroolbark Soccer Club has its home. Ainslie Park Cricket Club needs investment in their club facilities. Eastfield Park—no reflection on the club, but it is probably one of the poorest club facilities in my electorate—is in desperate need of some upgrades to facilities there. I know Maroondah City Council is working on a master plan for all of Eastfield Park that might result in a new pavilion there, but they are going to need funding support. Griff Hunt Reserve, where Rugby Union is played: I was down there last Saturday. Apparently it is one of the best surfaces in Rugby Union at that level and at that grade across Victoria, so it has got good drainage and good facilities. The clubrooms there are not in bad nick, but they desperately need lights out there. They only want a couple of light poles, so it is not an expensive project. Again I will continue to work hard and advocate to try to get some funding for lighting for Griff Hunt Reserve and of course Cheong Park, which I know Shaun Leane, the President in the other house, announced some funding for, as did our federal member for Deakin, Michael Sukkar, to invest in facilities there, which is home to South Croydon Cricket Club and the South Croydon footy club. I give them a shout-out; it would be great to continue to invest in their facilities. In return they can attract players, sponsors and have events there because they have got great facilities to support both the cricket club and indeed the football club in that first division—or premier division, as it is now called. Investing to help fight homelessness is an issue. I know the government is talking about building new properties around the state but there are none in the Maroondah region where homelessness is a real problem. Again, it would have been nice to see some investment in Maroondah to deal with that issue. The ambulance station in Mooroolbark—there is still a vacant block of land there, still earmarked for an ambulance station and still no news from the government whether there will be any funding for it. I have raised this matter at various times in this place. I have written to the various ministers for health over time. In fact a constituent wrote to me just this week asking, ‘What is going on with the vacant parcel of land that was earmarked for the ambulance station in Mooroolbark? Is it going to be developed or is it going to be on sold?’. It is actually an eyesore at the moment, not even being tended to or maintained. It is just an overgrown block near the five-ways roundabout in Mooroolbark. Croydon Specialist Developmental School—again I will advocate for them. They did not receive any funding at all. They only need about $25 000 for a school master plan, and I know they are looking for about $100 000 for an all-abilities playground for the junior school. Again, it would be terrific to have those discussions with the Minister for Education and try to get support for some funding there.

MOTIONS 2446 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Pinks Reserve was allocated $10.2 million. It is not in my electorate but a lot of my constituents play sport there—cricket, footy, softball, netball, table tennis, basketball, badminton, all the sports in that sport precinct. I look forward to that funding being delivered, and we will keep a close eye on that investment. I will conclude there, but I will continue to advocate for these important— (Time expired) Mr BRAYNE (Nepean) (16:08): I am here to talk about this year’s budget, or as it is known to its friends, the Appropriation (2019–2020) Bill 2019. This is the first budget that I have been involved in as the member for Nepean. I wanted a budget that saw our peninsula, that saw Nepean—Rosebud, Rye, Dromana, Balnarring, Somers, St Andrews Beach—secure a better deal than it had in years past. I wanted a budget that saw longstanding issues on our peninsula—decades-long problems—begin to get traction and begin to get some funding. I wanted our peninsula to not be left out of the pie like it always has been by the decades-long MPs we have had on the Mornington Peninsula. I was hesitant about getting too excited. As I told every community group and every passionate community advocate in Nepean, ‘I am not going to get anything from our first budget. It is an election promises budget, and the election promises have to be the priority’. Which is why I cannot wipe this grin off of my face, because this budget went above and beyond my expectations. Finally our peninsula is getting some money. Let us spell out what we are getting. First, Red Hill Consolidated School is getting $3.2 million for upgrades. That is an unbelievable announcement. Let us talk about Red Hill consolidated—a school that has not had any capital works expenditure in the last 50 years except for the Rudd government’s Building the Education Revolution program. It is a school that excels in teaching and has an outstanding principal in Leanne Marshall, but it does not have the facilities to match. Why should that situation have been allowed to exist for so long? When I met Principal Marshall she spoke of her sincere and understandable frustration and occasional embarrassment when parents saw some of these facilities. Principal Marshall and that school community have nothing to be embarrassed about. The school continues to grow and continues to be loved by families and the community. Indeed schools on the Mornington Peninsula—Rye Primary School, St Joseph’s Primary School, Boneo Primary School, Rosebud Primary School, Rosebud Secondary College, Dromana Primary School, Our Lady of Fatima Parish Primary School, Somers Primary School, Padua College and so on—hold special places in the hearts of people who live in those parts of Nepean, and Red Hill is the same. But the facilities have got to match the love. If this were a school in Melbourne, this situation would not have been allowed to continue, but because it is the Mornington Peninsula we have to put up with it. Not on my watch, folks. This funding begins what should have happened years ago. Dromana Secondary College was actually the first school I visited when I became the member for Nepean. We wrote a letter introducing me, talking about the area of Nepean and about the election, and I think we mentioned the Dromana drive-in. In the letter we asked if principals could get in touch when convenient to allow us to come and visit their schools. Principal Alan Marr got in touch before we could even drop the letter off at Australia Post. He said he wanted to book in a time asap to meet with me. He suggested a date. We responded saying, ‘Isn’t that school holidays?’. Apparently he spends a lot of his school holidays working anyway. That is another thing I have discovered about school principals in Nepean. We are so lucky to have principals who care enough to spend their holidays working through not only paperwork and enrolments but also overseeing necessary works, tending to the outdoor areas or looking after the school’s animals, which so many schools down my way have. We booked in a time. Principal Marr said he had been the principal at Dromana secondary for about 12 years. He spoke to me about the constant struggle with funding and that in all his time he had never had a school visit from the Minister for Education to talk about his school and the school community. Just a reminder that the previous member for Nepean was the Minister for Education. Again, a nice guy, but he did not visit the school during his time as minister. Things have got to change on the peninsula, and they are with this budget. Dromana secondary is getting $2.36 million in this budget.

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2447

These numbers seem to just roll off the tongue. In this place and the federal Parliament numbers seem to be just thrown around all the time, but this is genuine, good-quality funding for a school that needs it. This combined funding is the biggest investment in schools in Nepean ever. These are two schools in a beautiful area that has 16 schools. Some schools are not listed in this budget. I get it. I have visited every school in Nepean. I have sat down and spoken to every principal about the issues they want addressed and the facilities they want improved. I get it. Schools and education will be a priority for me. I will be visiting these schools regularly because I need to be told by principals what they need to make sure kids on our peninsula grow up to be as successful as kids who attend school in Melbourne and because MPs should have a good working relationship with every single school in their electorates. There is so much else to be proud of in this budget. Even though we have not had a Labor MP on the peninsula for the last century, we still reap the benefits of the Andrews government because the Andrews government is about attacking areas where the status quo just is not fair. We are so blessed to live in Australia—and even more so to live on the Mornington Peninsula—but there is always room to improve our society, like with affordable solar panels. Some of you watching may not know this, but my electorate of Nepean has had one of the highest uptakes of the half-price solar panels. Why? Because there are many people—families and retirees—in my electorate who could not afford to install solar panels on their roof. Why should solar, the ability to tap into one of our most abundant resources, be a luxury of those most fortunate? A society that is fair gives power back to the people. It offers power at affordable prices and allows everyone in the community to have access to ways to make their power more affordable and, in the process, more environmentally clean. This is also one of the number one things that people raise when they call the office or visit us at McCrae shopping plaza. So if you are having difficulty accessing your solar rebate or are wanting more information on how to proceed, please come and see us because we want the uptake to be even higher than it has already been. Rye pier is getting $500 000 to fix the low landing section that has been closed off since summer. People here might be like, ‘Wow, a pier!’, but piers play such an important role on our Mornington Peninsula. They are often one of the defining features of our towns, and are often also historically important. I know Mechelle Cheers and her Rye Community Group Alliance will be ecstatic to see some money going to their beloved pier. The Andrews Labor government was re-elected with the ‘Danslide’ it got because of reputation. It made promises in the 2014 election and actually went down to work delivering them. Imagine— politicians making promises and keeping them. This budget continues that process. Now, despite the fact that this budget is actually more for Nepean than any budget of the last eight years, I have received some feedback that there are other avenues where funding could have gone. I hear you, I understand— I have lived on the peninsula. I know there are areas where we never get funding. There is a backlog of projects—a backlog—which has been crying out for funding for literally decades before I was born. I did not create the backlog, but I will be the one to start addressing it. I have also been criticised by the federal member for Flinders, Greg Hunt. Now, I like Greg. He is a good guy. He has been a good health minister, putting many more drugs on our Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. I am certain there have been many families that have benefited from his decisions in his last three years as the health minister. I know how insane and mind-boggling it must be to speak well of someone who is of a different political party to you, but credit must be given where credit is due. Where credit is not due, however, is in the many local Mornington Peninsula-based problems that have built up in the 18 years that Greg has been the federal member. For instance Jetty Road—let us talk about it. Bringing the roads minister down earlier in the year, I had hoped, would restart the conversation after years of politicians on the peninsula making irresponsible promises about wanting to deal with Jetty Road with no actual commitment to seeing it through. I made no election promises during my campaign about Jetty Road, but it became so apparent to me, as I was standing there at pre-

MOTIONS 2448 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 poll speaking to everyone in my community as they came through, that Jetty Road is one of the southern peninsula’s biggest issues. It matters to the people of the southern peninsula. Jetty Road is a residential street that has a freeway connected to it. I wanted this issue—the Jetty Road overpass— back on the agenda. Greg has been a federal member in the federal cabinet of Australia for the last six years. He knew about the problem, but he never got funding for it. I get it—big projects take time. For Greg Hunt, though, it took 18 years, which is why we were ever so pleased when Mr Hunt, two months before an election, said he would build the overpass. Going further, at pre-poll, Greg frequently told residents that the Jetty Road overpass had been ‘delivered’ and that the funding has been ‘locked in’. I look forward to seeing Greg deliver this project over the coming months and next few years. It will be great to see it achieved before his next election, and I will ensure his promise made during this election is a promise kept. In fact I will ensure all his promises are kept. During this election campaign, Greg made more financial promises for our peninsula than in the 2016, 2013 and 2010 elections combined, which indicates our peninsula will not be taken for granted anymore. For me, this shows that there has never been a more exciting time to live on the Mornington Peninsula. To paraphrase Principal Marr from the other day: I have only been in for six months, and in the past six months more movement has happened on the Mornington Peninsula than in the past 20 years. This is so exciting to be a part of; to be able to start to deliver for your home is a great feeling. At the end of it all, budgets are representative of our values. A mate of mine who has no interest in politics asked why he should care about the budget. Budgets are made up of your taxpayer dollars and should reflect the values of our society. They set us up for the future. As a party, we value the opportunity for the people of Victoria to get ahead. We value hard work and fairness. We value the environment. We value our young people getting the best chance to succeed in life, whether they were raised in Rosebud, Rye, Melbourne or Sydney. This budget begins the work of addressing our peninsula getting more than what it has been getting, and getting what it truly deserves. Mr MORRIS (Mornington) (16:21): Just listening to the member for Nepean, I think two points come to mind. He said something about there having not been an ALP member of Parliament on the peninsula for a century or so. Apparently he does not know David Hassett, who was the member for Dromana in this place from 1982 to 1985, part of the first Cain government. I am sure David, if he is still around, would be rather mortified to know he had been forgotten that quickly. The other point I wanted to make on the remarks from the member for Nepean is that he apparently does not recognise that the Labor Party in Victoria has been in government for 16 of the last 20 years, so if there has been a problem with funding services and funding infrastructure on the peninsula—and I agree with him, absolutely; there has been a big problem with funding services and infrastructure on the Mornington Peninsula—it is down to the government that holds the purse strings, and for 16 of the last 20 years that has been the Labor Party. Can I say that this is a fascinating budget. Of course it was delayed on purely political grounds. It was delayed to play games and attempt to achieve a better outcome for Bill Shorten in the federal election. That did not work, as it should not have. Then it was brought in, and it was shoved through, because we had to deal with it incredibly urgently—it just had to go through—and we are now left, many weeks after the event, dealing with this take-note motion. It is interesting, though, that the manner in which the government approached the budget was, you would have to say, rather different to previous years. We are all used to the blizzard of media releases that come out—40, 50, 60 media releases over a few days. With this budget there was one, two or three, perhaps. That was about it. Not surprisingly, perhaps, the budget disappeared without a trace the day after the Treasurer’s speech, and that is not at all surprising because when you go through the detail of the budget there was next to nothing new in it. Almost every announcement, or concealed cut—and there were plenty of those—was well and truly known before the budget day and in most

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2449 cases well and truly known before election day. So there was absolutely nothing new in this budget despite the fact that we are now six months on from the election. I did want to comment on the process around the budget and particularly the scrutiny of the budget. Those that have been around will recall that in 2014 the then shadow Attorney-General put out a media release that was headed ‘More government scrutiny under Labor reform plan’:

Labor will repair the Victorian Parliament’s most powerful Government watchdog after years of Napthine Government cover-ups. … Under Labor’s reforms the Estimates hearings will become a true exercise in holding the Government to account. … an Andrews Labor Government will not be afraid of genuine scrutiny, and as such we’ll be happy to subject ourselves to this far reaching accountability reform. We will:

… Ensure ministers are not asked so-called Dorothy Dixer questions with rehearsed answers. We will: … Enforce an equal number of Government and non-government members on the Committee. Well, five years after that release, where are we? Well, we have got a government-dominated committee and we sure as hell have Dorothy Dixers—they were much in evidence over the last few weeks of estimates. And we had a schedule—I am not sure where the responsibility for the schedule lies—perhaps it is with the former chairman of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee; I am sure the government would like to think that that was the case anyway. But a schedule was agreed to, and agreed to by the majority of government members, that meant we had the education portfolio dealt with between 5.30 and 7.00 p.m. on a Friday night; we had training and skills and higher education, which has been an ongoing contentious area in terms of estimates, dealt with between 8.00 and 9.30 on a Friday night; small business and local government, again critical areas but apparently not worthy of serious scrutiny because they were on at almost 8 o’clock on a Tuesday night; regional development and resources—and we know the Premier says the state is running out of concrete so we cannot build the east–west link—examined by PAEC between 7.40 and 8.40 on a Wednesday night; and then of course child protection, which is again a critical and often controversial area, on between 7 and 8 o’clock at night. Wherever the blame lies, it is simply not good enough to conduct the estimates process in the way in which it was conducted—it is simply not good enough. There were significant cuts to the time available for specific areas. In 2014 the Minister for Energy fronted the committee for an hour and 15 minutes. The Minister for Environment and Climate Change fronted the committee for 1 hour and 30 minutes, so the combined total of those two portfolios was 2 hours and 45 minutes. This year the energy, environment and climate change minister, who has carriage of both those portfolios, was just 2 hours before the committee. So that is a cut of almost 30 per cent in the time available to examine a minister in a critical portfolio area. That is apparently what this government calls better and more government scrutiny. It is a joke—it really is a joke. I know many government members are unhappy with the secretive nature of this government. I know they are unhappy with the way these hearings have been conducted. I also understand that you cannot publicly criticise your ministers and the direction of the government, but I do urge them to take every step that they can—behind closed doors, whenever the opportunity arises—to do something about the way the estimates process has been neutered, because it has absolutely been neutered. It is an absolutely critical part of our democracy that the Parliament scrutinises the expenditure plans of the executive. In this Parliament the only vehicle to achieve that outcome is the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee, and that process, as I say, has been neutered. It is simply not good for our democracy to have a situation where that capacity is taken away. In all seriousness, it is a real issue.

MOTIONS 2450 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Speaking of PAEC, the minister’s presentation—I must say that while we all of course are using Microsoft products constantly, you would have to say that PowerPoint is really not the greatest advance in terms of political debate; but anyway—was a vehicle for a series of what I consider to be hollow boasts as well as some claims that might be considered at best interesting. The minister talked about unprecedented investment. She talked about new funding for a range of initiatives. She talked about the detail that was there. I have got to say that I am extremely concerned, particularly with the environment aspects of the budget, that the various outputs that make up the environment section of this portfolio—climate change, environment and biodiversity, statutory activities and environment protection, management of public land and forests, Parks Victoria, fire and emergency management— in total have received a significant cut. In the 2018–19 revised budget those outputs total $1208.7 million. In the budget that has been tabled this year they total $1179 million. Almost $30 million has been cut directly out of those outputs for the year. If you consider that CPI is running on the latest figures at around 1.2 per cent, that is effectively a $45 million cut for the year to date. Of more concern though to me is that when you get down into the detail and you look at the way the initiatives that are contained in chapter 1 of the budget are funded from these outputs, you see that there is an additional $6.1 million required from the department to fund the initiatives in the climate change portfolio, so that is $6.1 million the department does not have to go about its usual business in that output. In terms of the environment and biodiversity output, that is not too bad. You get to the statutory activities and environment protection, and goodness knows we need that, and there is $28.7 million more coming out of that output in initiatives than has been done previously, so the department in that output has almost $30 million less to spend on their day-to-day business. That is concerning. Similarly with the management of public land and forests, $32.9 million extra is coming out for government initiatives rather than the day-to-day business of the department. Parks Victoria is not too bad, but fire and emergency management really does take the cake: $68.4 million of initiatives is no longer available to the department to go about their normal business. Once you see that $30 million has been cut from last year and the impact of initiatives is another $68.4 million, there is almost $100 million less available to the department to go about their business in terms of the outputs in this budget. I am very, very concerned about the capacity of the department to achieve the level of service it needs to achieve with the funding cuts it is having to deal with. This is not a good budget. This is probably one of the worst budgets I have seen in my almost 13 years in this house. Ms HORNE (Williamstown—Minister for Ports and Freight, Minister for Public Transport) (16:33): I rise today to provide a contribution on the Appropriation (2019–2020) Bill 2019. There is a saying that really resonates with this budget, and that is ‘a budget that puts your money where your mouth is’. How a government determines the commitments it takes to an election and then delivers in its budget is a true expression of its values, and I am proud to be standing here today talking about a true Labor budget. This bill fulfils the commitments the Andrews Labor government took to last year’s election, when the people of Victoria so soundly endorsed our work over the last four years. This government said what it was going to do, and then it did what it said. In 2018 we put forward a plan to deliver for all Victorians, and now we are getting on with the job of delivering on that plan. This budget has been delivered in restrained economic circumstances, yet we have stayed the course. We have not wavered from our resolve to deliver the things that matter across Victoria. I have been lucky enough not only to be part of a government committed to delivering, but alongside the Minister for Transport Infrastructure and the Minister for Roads I am part of a team of transport ministers determined to deliver. I am proud to say that public transport is front and centre in this bill. There is significant money being put towards continuing the Big Build, with $3.4 billion in upgrades to the Hurstbridge, Sunbury and Cranbourne lines and funding to continue our work removing

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2451 dangerous and congested level crossings and building the Metro Tunnel. It continues the government’s focus on improving transport connections across the state, with bigger and better trains and trams, new bus routes, more train and bus services and safer and less congested freight routes. This bill has a focus on making sure regional Victorians can move around more easily, because we know there is an important link between good transport options, population growth and access to jobs and educational opportunities. It is also a bill that unleashes some of the early benefits of the Big Build. The last four state budgets have seen massive investment in new and upgraded transport infrastructure, and this bill is yet another step towards unlocking the benefits the Big Build is delivering. The level of investment in public transport in this bill is impressive, and as a newly minted minister with responsibility in that area, I am grateful to the Treasurer and the Premier, who have resisted the doubters and resisted the temptation to declare it all too hard and too much. We made a commitment to the people of Victoria, and that is what we are delivering. We are delivering $163 million to purchase 10 additional E-class trams, taking Melbourne’s fleet of low-floor accessible trams to 100. We are investing $340 million to purchase new VLocity trains, including standard gauge VLocitys that will improve the experience of passengers on the Geelong, Ballarat and north-east lines. And I would like to thank my colleague in the other place the Minister for Regional Development, Jaclyn Symes, for her relentless advocacy for the communities in the north-east. Fifty-four new carriages will make up to 18 new trains that will be progressively delivered between now and 2021. We will also invest $150 million to build another 11 000 new and upgraded car parks. That is on top of the 10 000 completed in the last term of government. These car parks will be at some of our busiest stations, including Tarneit, Cranbourne, Frankston and Dandenong. We want more people using public transport. We do not want them to be deterred from hopping on a train to get to their destination because they could not make the first few kilometres of their journey or they have those first few kilometres getting home. We are investing $111 million to recruit, train and upskill train drivers to run new services and get drivers ready for the new bigger and better trains we are rolling out across the network. We are investing $83 million in upgrading in-train communication systems that will support Metro train drivers to communicate critical information when out driving on the network. That will improve safety and help to reduce delays. We are also investing $205 million to deliver more train and bus services more often. This will pave the way to make the most of our investment in new and upgraded infrastructure and rolling stock. Another key part of this bill is the government’s commitment to freight. The Andrews Labor government is the first in Victoria’s history to give freight a place at cabinet and the first that genuinely embraces freight as a vital sector of our economy. We see the freight and logistics sector as a key driver of the state’s economy. The government does not move freight, but we do own the infrastructure on which the trucks and trains travel, we regulate the size and speed of vehicles and we determine where they can and cannot travel. We recognise that every extra dollar a manufacturer or farmer spends in delays or congestion is an extra dollar added to the cost of a Victorian export, so this government has a strong interest in the success of the freight industry. This budget, most pleasingly, extends the mode shift incentive scheme, which for more than 10 years has made rail more attractive than road for many regional exporters moving containers to the port. Last year over 40 000 20-foot-equivalent containers travelled from regional Victoria on rail rather than road as a result of this scheme. That has removed over 20 000 trucks not just from regional Victoria but also from roads around the port—that is, roads around the port and around my electorate of Williamstown. That extension of this scheme has been welcomed by industry representatives from the Rail Freight Alliance. Only a couple of weeks ago I met with them. They said, ‘This is a fantastic initiative. We are so pleased to see its continuation’. It is an initiative that is outlined in the government’s freight strategy and it is really pleasing to see it progressed. As the member for Williamstown, an electorate home to Australia’s biggest container port, I know firsthand the value of taking trucks off suburban roads. We

MOTIONS 2452 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 have partnered with the private sector to deliver the port rail shuttle, which means using rail to move containers between the port and terminals at Altona and Somerton. Being part of this government’s transport team has given me immense pride, and I thank both the Minster for Transport Infrastructure and the Minister for Roads. I am also grateful to be speaking about this budget from my perspective as the recently elected member for Williamstown. I am proud to be part of a government delivering for my community, and that is particularly the case when I look at what this government is delivering for an area very close to my heart—education. This budget provides $3.83 million to build new classrooms and learning areas at Altona North Primary School. I met recently with the principal of Altona North Primary School, Robyn Gregson, and the palpable delight she had in being able to say her classrooms would accommodate a growing school community was truly heartwarming. The budget also has $20.25 million for the next stage of the Footscray Learning Precinct. That includes $16.12 million for Gilmore College for Girls and $4.12 million for Footscray City College. Principals, parents and teachers know that this money will transform our schools. Having been involved with the fight to get the Footscray Learning Precinct up and running, which was primarily my catalyst for standing up and running for election, this is truly a delight to see. This will be a project that transforms the way that education is delivered in the inner west. It is a legacy project of the advocacy work that the former member for Footscray, Marsha Thomson, and the former member for Williamstown, Wade Noonan, worked so closely together on with the Deputy Premier and Minister for Education. It sees education being delivered in a holistic fashion from cradle to grave where at any single point in a person’s lifestyle there will be quality, world-class facilities available in the inner west for the local community, and that is something that this budget delivers. The other pleasing thing is that there is $137 000 in funding for Williamstown High School to plan for the upgrade to the year 12 study centre and complete the school’s theatre complex. That school’s theatre complex is another legacy education project. It was started during former Premier Steve Bracks’s reign and continued through Wade Noonan, and it will be awesome to see the completion of this project through this budget. It has allowed Williamstown High School to become the central arts high school in the local area. Part of why this is so pleasing is Labor invests in the west. It is only a Labor government that invests in the west. This budget is a Labor budget. It is one that is centred around fairness and equity. Victorians deserve this budget. No matter where they live in this state, no matter what their circumstances, everyone deserves to have the best opportunities in life for themselves, for their families, for their children and for their local communities. I am proud to be part of a government standing for its values and a government that gets things done. I support this budget and its speedy passage through the house. Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (16:46): I rise to speak on the budget reply motion. There are a lot of things in the 2019–20 budget that I would like to refer to, and in doing so many of them are flow-ons from the previous budget. First of all, just to articulate what we found in the budget that was particularly relevant to my electorate, I was pleased to see $7 million towards a fish hatchery in Shepparton. This is for the development of Murray cod to go back into our rivers and streams to improve our environments, but it is also part of the Target One Million fishing project of the state government. While there are now plans being put together to build this fishery in the area of Shepparton, I am seeing this as also creating an opportunity to expand our tourism, so it is very important that we build into this native fishery project the opportunity for tourists to go through and see it. In Narrandera in New South Wales there is an extraordinary fish hatchery that has been established with a wonderful interpretive centre and other facilities around it that really make great opportunities available for education purposes and for tourism. In the last Parliament $170 million was allocated to stage 1 of the redevelopment of Goulburn Valley Health. Stage 1 is well underway and the top floor of the tower will be going on very shortly. Two

MOTIONS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2453 million dollars was allocated in this budget for the intensive planning for stage 2 of Goulburn Valley Health’s redevelopment. That is a very important part of the rolling out of health services in our region which will meet the needs of our community into the future, including upgrades to a whole range of the cancer services available to us in Shepparton. Asbestos in our schools remains a problem, and I was pleased to see that Nathalia Secondary College has been allocated $1.8 million to deal with what is happening in that secondary college. Shepparton will share in a $5 million commitment towards seven regional basketball hubs. In an area where health issues are challenging, particularly obesity in many regional areas—and Shepparton is very much a part of that—anything that promotes sport and opportunities is welcome by way of investment. We have the Dookie agricultural college located in our area, a very longstanding asset that has been used for many generations for young people to undertake their agricultural college studies. While it had a bit of a downtime, Melbourne University is reinvesting in the Dookie agricultural college, and it is now seeing more students there all the time. There has been $6 million allocated for Dookie to share with two other regional campuses for accommodation and other developments on its campus. In talking about previous major commitments, a lot of the budgetary announcements of the past are currently being rolled out. Shepparton rail has achieved $356 million in funding. Stage 1, which was the stabling and some works around the Shepparton railway station, have been completed. We now have our fifth service and numerous additional bus services running between Shepparton and Seymour and in some cases Shepparton and Melbourne. At the moment the planning is well underway to commence stage 2. I have called on the government to roll stages 2 and 3 together. Stage 2 is a whole lot of work that will involve lengthening platforms at a range of stations between Shepparton and Seymour. There are many level crossings that need signalling, removing or addressing in some way. But importantly the track work needs to be done to make these tracks ready for VLocity trains and it looks like that is stage 3. It is why I say to the government: roll stages 2 and 3 together; get them done together so that at that point we will actually be ready to put up to nine VLocity trains a day between Shepparton and Melbourne on that line. The Shepparton education plan was allocated $21 million in the previous budget, and that project is now rolling out. Of course it will need substantially more funding because this is seeing a major transformation of secondary education in our region, bringing together the four secondary colleges in Shepparton and Mooroopna onto one campus. It is a model of nine schools, with 300 children in each school, all on one campus, with all other facilities—STEM, performing arts and physical education facilities all on the one campus. So it is three schools in a neighbourhood—each school, 300 students. This has been designed as a way to better attend to the needs of young people in smaller environments but still having them together on a much larger campus where the benefit of having all of the resources on one campus is actually available. There will be a high emphasis on wellbeing for students. Unfortunately there has been a push probably in the last month to six weeks of people pushing back on this. I fear that this is party driven. During the last election campaign the National Party used the notion of our super-school as a negative and alleged that there had not been sufficient consultation and that it was not necessarily the best solution. This was a community-driven project. All school councils were onboard. All principals are onboard. Families are so excited to see that there is the prospect of an education system with all the physical facilities encompassed in it to really provide for young people into the future. It is also going to be located on the old Shepparton High School site, which is part of an education precinct within walking distance of La Trobe University and within walking distance of the existing TAFE college. So there is an opportunity for that integration of those educational services to be on that one precinct and to really take advantage of it. It will cut away so much of the bussing that our young students have had to do to get access to facilities. To do specialist maths you had to get a bus to Bendigo. To do physics you had to get on a bus and go to another school. You could not do geography. You could not do Australian history. There was not even agriculture and horticulture being

MOTIONS 2454 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 taught at a VCE level in Shepparton, and this is the heart of agriculture and horticulture, a region that is just so well-known for it. So I am really hopeful that the community will get behind seeing that this is an enormous opportunity for young people and will provide outcomes that will be outstanding, particularly given that no other options were ever put forward and those opposing it still have no other plans that might in any way be better. Unfortunately sometimes with consultations people do not bother to take the opportunity to become involved but become concerned once the decision has been made. There are many meetings being held in our region, and I would urge everyone to take their concerns to their schools, to their principals and to the new executive principal so they can have any concerns they might have allayed. The rollout of three-year-old kindergarten will be a terrific initiative and will eventually come to our area—a major regional area that has significant disadvantage, and there is no doubt that all the studies show investing in early childhood is the best and the most important way to spend your dollar. Part of the Shepparton education plan is the building of an integrated early childhood centre at Mooroopna Primary School. Now, this is in a very disadvantaged area. We have been to visit Doveton College. We have looked at the model there that seems to be working really well. We will be looking at adopting that hub notion, where young families will come for their maternal and child health service, their three- year-old kindergarten and their four-year-old kindergarten playgroups and then flow on into the primary school setting. That will be built within the next 12 months and be underway. So that investment in early childhood is really the first investment that will be up and going and operating under the Shepparton education plan, but it was felt that the investment had to go into the secondary colleges because of the neglect of those colleges for so very long and the deterioration in the outcomes in those four schools. The further reduction in payroll tax is a really important business initiative in regions, and so many business people in my area have welcomed year after year in the budgets the reductions that have taken place and continue to take place. I believe that while we are seeing a lot of government investment in the Shepparton district and the flow-on benefits from that, it is not only government investments that are happening, because when you get that critical mass of energy and work going on in a town the flow-on effects are that new businesses are opening to support these developments. A range of new commercial enterprises are opening, and people are really talking about the fact that Shepparton is really buzzing. Unfortunately that leads me to an issue which is not entirely budget-related. It is very distressing to live in a community where your major regional centre is doing well but the community around it— the farming community—is in crisis. The dairy industry is a fundamental part of our community. Since 2000 we have lost 59 per cent of our dairy farmers. We have lost 48 per cent of our milk production. We have some of the major milk processors located in our region, who are now struggling to get the supply that they need to produce the goods that they want to for local consumption but also for export. Nobody has come up with a solution for what to do about the dairy industry, but a very significant part of that in our region relates to access to water. While there has been a drought right along the eastern seaboard, there is something else going on, and it is something more sinister, and it relates to the fact that we have water speculators in our market. At least 7 per cent of water now out there in the free trade in water is owned by speculators, and it is alleged that they are manipulating the market. So if ever we needed transparency it is now, and it is very important that we come to some sort of decision about what that transparency is—what it looks like. We want to know where the farmers are, we want to know what water our neighbours own, when they are selling it and who they are selling it to. We want to know what speculators are there. We want a situation where water in our region is used for food production, not manipulated and used in other ways. So while this is not entirely a budgetary issue, it is certainly a major issue for our whole northern Victoria region. Just in the last moment I will have right now I want to talk about our Fairley Leadership program, and regional leadership programs are really important. There was no particular line in the budget about the

BILLS Thursday, 20 June 2019 Legislative Assembly 2455 future of funding of these programs, although I am assured Regional Development Victoria will continue funding for the next 12 months and we will be looking to see what funding will be available. They are looking at how they have been operating and what they will do in the future. I cannot commend these organisations enough for the work that they do in developing local leadership. You would not find a board or a committee in my region that did not have a fellow of a leadership program on it, so it is really investing in the public capital of our region to continue these regional leadership programs throughout the region. The SPEAKER: Order! The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived and I am required to interrupt business. The member will be able to continue her contribution when the matter is next before the Chair. Bills ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TREATMENT AMENDMENT (CONSENT) BILL 2019 Second reading Debate resumed on motion of Mr FOLEY: That this bill be now read a second time. Motion agreed to. Read second time. Third reading Motion agreed to. Read third time. The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested. SUPERANNUATION LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL 2019 Second reading Debate resumed on motion of Mr SCOTT: That this bill be now read a second time. Motion agreed to. Read second time. Third reading Motion agreed to. Read third time. The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested. PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL 2019 Second reading Debate resumed on motion of Mr PAKULA: That this bill be now read a second time.

ADJOURNMENT 2456 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Motion agreed to. Read second time. Third reading Motion agreed to. Read third time. The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested. OWNER DRIVERS AND FORESTRY CONTRACTORS AMENDMENT BILL 2019 Second reading Debate resumed on motion of Mr PALLAS: That this bill be now read a second time. Motion agreed to. Read second time. Third reading Motion agreed to. Read third time. The SPEAKER: The bill will now be sent to the Legislative Council and their agreement requested. Business interrupted under sessional orders. Adjournment The SPEAKER: The question is: That the house now adjourns. KILMORE BYPASS Ms RYAN (Euroa) (17:01): (833) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Roads in the other place, and the action I seek is for the minister to visit Kilmore with me to meet with locals who are concerned about a lack of action over the Kilmore bypass. Kilmore is absolutely choking in traffic. In 2013 The Nationals and the Liberals allocated funding to begin the Kilmore bypass, and had we been re-elected that project would have been finished by the end of 2017—now two years ago. Despite decades of public pressure, this year’s budget did not include any further funding to progress this vitally important project. In fact the budget notes that funding allocated for land acquisition for the bypass in last year’s budget has actually now been delayed to June 2022, which means the government is taking a full three years just to undertake the land acquisition on this project. It states that completion dates have been revised ‘due to a delay in the implementation of the public acquisition overlay’—which I just find extraordinary. The Andrews government has now been sitting on its hands for five years on this project, and it cares so much about it that in the 2016–17 budget they actually listed the project as having been completed. That is how in tune they are with what the community needs. The government seems to think that it has finished this project just by picking an alignment. In April 2015 I asked the then roads minister when construction would begin. This is what he said in response: The Andrews government is proud it has been able to deliver and work with the community on this project.

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I really question this—delivered what? They have done absolutely nothing. In April this year, four years on, I asked the current minister when construction would start. She said VicRoads had completed investigations on two alternative alignments to meet the environment effects statement requirements to minimise the impact on the wastewater facility. She said VicRoads was now seeking planning approvals to finalise the alignment, expected to be completed at the end of this year, and then a business case would be prepared for funding. It is just absolutely unbelievable to me that when we left office in 2014 the early works for this program had been funded and were actually underway, and here we are five years on and Labor has not acquired a single property or provided any funding towards the construction of this project. All of it comes in a context where Labor members in this house are boasting that they have a big bold build, they pat themselves on the back for spending $20 billion on the suburban road infrastructure and they complain about a lack of funding from Canberra—but we account for 25 per cent of the state’s population and we are getting zip. MAROONDAH HOSPITAL Mr HALSE (Ringwood) (17:04): (834) I direct my adjournment matter to the Minister for Health and Minister for Ambulance Services in the other place, and the action I seek is for her to visit Maroondah Hospital with me to discuss Labor’s plans to build a new children’s emergency department. The Andrews Labor government’s election commitment to improve the facilities at Maroondah Hospital was much welcomed by those in my district and the surrounding areas. Recently I had the pleasure to tour Maroondah Hospital on International Nurses Day to thank the hardworking hospital and nursing staff for the work that they do every single day, frequently going above and beyond to care for those in our community. They deserve the very best of facilities within which to undertake their vital duties. I note that the recent budget committed $5.9 million to kickstart the planning for this new vital service. In communicating with both hospital staff and local families, they are eager to learn more about how this planning will be conducted and how they might be able to engage in project consultation. This is an important upgrade to Maroondah Hospital as locals might ordinarily travel to the Monash Children’s Hospital or the Royal Children’s Hospital if their loved ones fall sick. I look forward to receiving the minister’s answer promptly and welcoming her to Ringwood soon. STAFF ENTITLEMENTS Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (17:06): (835) My adjournment this evening is to the Minister for Industrial Relations, and the action I seek is an investigation into reported underpayment of staff entitlements. This government often talks about protecting workers. For example, in 2018 the Premier said via press release: Too many Victorians are being exploited by unscrupulous employers … and: A re-elected Andrews Labor Government will make sure all Victorians get paid properly for the work they do and dodgy employers get more than a slap on the wrist … I have been made aware of alleged underpayment of staff entitlements and set out the following scenario that warrants investigation. A young man, from family wealth, set out into the world. He took with him a purse of money, gifted by his family. The young man set off to a regional town, where he decided to hang his hat. There he bought a historic pub for a tidy $1.6 million. The man was now a publican. Business started well and the man invested a further $2 million, bringing his investment to a total of $3.6 million. The renovations modernised the pub, which I understand included 14 electronic gaming machines. I note that members in this Parliament have spoken against what they describe as ‘regressive’ gaming machines.

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As the young man would later say, the regional town was bolstered by the coal industry. Coal industry workers were the backbone of this young man’s business. But sadly for this young man, the coal industry waned. As he would later say: … the changes to the coal industry … impacted our business … Significant trading losses began to mount, and suddenly the pub locked its doors and the business went into receivership. The closure affected not only the township but also the six permanent staff and 10 casual workers. Receivers FTI Consulting were appointed to manage the divestment. FTI reportedly said, and I quote:

… outstanding wages have been paid to staff but they were likely to miss out on any other employee entitlements. Let me repeat that: staff were likely to miss out on any other employee entitlements. Ray White real estate would later sell the pub for $1.5 million. The publican had lost over $2 million of family money. I call on the minister to abide by the Premier’s commitment to make sure all Victorians get properly paid and commence an investigation into the former publican, the new member for Burwood, for reported underpayment of staff entitlements. I look forward to the minister’s response, and I make available relevant public reports to the minister and the house. COBURG HIGH SCHOOL Ms BLANDTHORN (Pascoe Vale) (17:08): (836) I appreciate the opportunity to raise a matter for the attention of the Minister for Education, and the action I seek is that the minister attend an official opening of the new facilities at Coburg High School. Coburg High School received $1.9 million in the 2017–18 budget to upgrade the main building. Coburg High School is a fantastic local school in my electorate that is contributing to excellent educational outcomes for its students. The school is led by hardworking principal Stewart Milner and the teaching staff, who do a great job at delivering outstanding learning opportunities and outcomes. In recent years the school has experienced rapid enrolment growth and has needed improved facilities in order to be able to match that growth. That is why in the 2017–18 state budget the Andrews Labor government delivered Coburg High School $1.9 million. It was great to recently visit the school for a Ramadan event and to see firsthand the new spaces. They certainly felt bright, they felt modern and they were complementary to a wide range of future learning and community-based activities. This week in my electorate office I have been very pleased to have a young constituent, Mitchell Seath, doing work experience. He is a student at Coburg High School. Mitch told me and my staff that the old buildings did not block out the noise between the classrooms, which made it hard to concentrate, that the new buildings have a far more functional feel and now it is easier to hear what his teachers have to say and for him and his classmates to focus on the tasks at hand. He also said that the brightness of the facilities and the colours of the facilities make them look far more modern and that the new buildings will help attract new students. I very much look forward to the minister coming to Coburg High School, meeting with Mitchell Seath and his peers and officially opening the new facilities at Coburg High School. STUDENT CONVEYANCE ALLOWANCE Mr BATTIN (Gembrook) (17:10): (837) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Education, and I am calling on him to come out and meet with parents and students in Upper Beaconsfield to discuss the public transport options for students who are being penalised for attending their closest public school. Recently I raised the issue with the minister of students in Upper Beaconsfield who, despite ticking all the boxes to be eligible for the conveyance allowance, are unable to claim the allowance due to Berwick College being in the metropolitan zone. The Minister for Education has stated that the conveyance allowance policy is not up for review until 2021 and that the students in Upper Beaconsfield can apply for concession Mykis to take the public bus service.

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When placing the address of a current student in Upper Beaconsfield who is ineligible for the allowance into the Public Transport Victoria journey planner, to have the student arrive at the college by 8.30 a.m. on a school day PTV advises that the student must take a taxi. Not only must the student take a taxi but they must actually take it past the school to Manuka Road or Brisbane Street in Berwick where they are instructed to catch a bus to a nearby road and then walk to the school. No option is given on the journey planner without a taxi taking the child to Berwick College and the student having to still walk to the school. As a parent pointed out, a free school bus is provided for students at the same college from Narre Warren North, which is a suburb that is not in the school’s zone, unlike Upper Beaconsfield. With Berwick College’s school zone changing next year to encompass the majority of what are considered regional suburbs, the allowance policy must be reviewed urgently to focus on the location of the child and not just that of the school. BASS COAST ELECTORATE COASTAL EROSION Ms CRUGNALE (Bass) (17:12): (838) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is for the minister to consider how the highly anticipated Bass Coast distinctive areas and landscapes process could provide support and strategies to my local area, in particular the townships of Inverloch, Cowes, Grantville and Jam Jerrup, to assist in preventing further coastal erosion of our stunning shoreline. In the public realm it has been said that Inverloch has the most aggressive coastal erosion in the state and extreme weather in Cape Paterson has also made the national headlines. Our changing climate and climate change is impacting the Bass Coast. We see it, it is happening and it is real. I take this opportunity to thank our active local community when it comes to the environment more broadly, extraordinary volunteers who work tirelessly to protect, enhance and revegetate areas: foreshore groups, conservation groups, Landcare groups, resident and ratepayer associations, the Clean Ocean Foundation, the Energy Innovation Cooperative, the Bass Coast Climate Action Network, the Plastic Bag Free Bass Coast group—just to mention a few. The Bass Coast council have coastal erosion as their number one priority. We want a seascape and a landscape for everyone to enjoy so it does not look so distressed and shocking. Beach access paths closures are on the rise, with some now at a 3-metre steep drop to the beach itself. Roads and coastal assets, including surf clubs and towers, are at risk. Areas of Inverloch have lost 33 metres of coastline in the last seven years, the surf tower has been moved numerous times and the Bunurong Coastal Road—a spectacular drive to Cape Paterson, with breathtaking views over Eagles Nest and part of the Bunurong Marine and Coastal Park—has one section just 5 metres now from Bass Strait. Our funding for the two wet fencing pilot initiatives on the beach is going quite well in that we can see the sand building up behind them. Similarly in Cowes, the community has concerns about the Cowes East foreshore between Rose Avenue and Coghlan Road, which has suffered from considerable erosion as well—and again the funding program of groyne replacements is most welcome. The coastline in Jam Jerrup and the Grantville area also has changed significantly over the last 10 years and is of great concern as well. Minister, I ask you to consider what support you could provide through the distinctive areas and landscape process to help my communities manage and prevent coastal erosion, plan for climate adaptation and protect assets, both natural and built, along this stretch of coastline. PRAHRAN ELECTORATE PUBLIC HOUSING Mr HIBBINS (Prahran) (17:15): (839) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Housing, and the action I seek is for the minister to upgrade public housing estates in the Prahran electorate, of which there are several in South Yarra, Prahran, St Kilda and Windsor—all around the Prahran electorate, including building new public housing on those estates as well to fix homelessness and reduce the public housing waiting list. More and more people are facing homelessness, sleeping rough,

ADJOURNMENT 2460 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019 fleeing family violence or living in unsafe and unsecure accommodation. The conditions of some people’s homes, and these are people’s homes, is just unacceptable. My office has had reports of bed bug infestations, pigeon infestations and pigeon crap covering the common windows and no air conditioning despite the incredible heat that is faced during summer. One tower in the Horace Petty Estate has only had a few floors upgraded, many years ago, while tenants have had to wait for empty promises that the rest would be fixed. Some of the houses need to be replaced with entirely new homes. Victoria spends less on social housing than any other state. It is absolutely outrageous that a wealthy society like ours cannot afford to look after people in need. Victoria needs a big build. Thousands of public housing homes need to be built every year—far more than what the government has promised in this term. The government’s sell-off plan, the public housing renewal program, has been designed to profit developers. It will actually reduce the capacity of our estates. The Bangs Street estate in Prahran is now just sitting empty. The government shops it around to developers when they could be building new public housing on this estate now. I urge the government to upgrade estates in the Prahran electorate and to build more public housing. ROBERT BOOTH RESERVE, HAMPTON PARK Mr MAAS (Narre Warren South) (17:17): (840) The adjournment matter I wish to raise is for the attention of the Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events and concerns Robert Booth Reserve in Hampton Park. The action I seek is that the minister join me in my electorate to visit Robert Booth Reserve and inspect the proposed plans for its redevelopment. Robert Booth Reserve is the epicentre of sport in my electorate of Narre Warren South and the surrounding areas. It is the home ground of many core local sporting clubs, including the Hampton Park Football Netball Club and the Hampton Park Cricket Club, as well as being the training ground for the Hampton Park fire brigade. That is why it is terrific to see the Andrews Labor government injecting $3 million into the redevelopment of the reserve as part of the Victorian budget. This investment will see the construction of modern facilities that will be of great use not only to the local sporting clubs and service organisations but also to local residents and community groups. The Hampton Park football club, the Redbacks, are actually having a great year in the Southern Football Netball League, currently sitting second on the ladders for the seniors and the reserves. Hopefully this will be the year that they go all the way. I look forward to working with the City of Casey, the Hampton Park Progress Association and Mr Tim Ziegler, who is president of the Hampton Park Football Netball Club, to ensure that the needs of the clubs and community are the priority in the redevelopment. The people of Narre Warren South can be assured that the Andrews Labor government will always strive to provide high-quality sporting facilities and sporting opportunities close to home. It would be fantastic for the minister to visit Robert Booth Reserve and see firsthand the proposed plans for the redevelopment that will greatly benefit the local community. Ms Allan interjected. Mr MAAS: Indeed. HIGHETT PUBLIC LAND Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (17:18): (841) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Planning, and the action I seek is for the minister to meet with Highett residents who will be directly impacted by the Andrews Labor government’s decision to re-zone the former gas and fuel land for private high-rise, high-density development so that their valid concerns and questions can be addressed. Since alerting my community to the Andrews Labor government’s decision I have been frankly overwhelmed by the response from locals: over 1000 petition signatures in just 10 days, a community forum with standing room only, countless emails, phone calls, media articles and messages from residents, all of whom have been utterly disappointed in their state government.

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My community has made it abundantly clear that they choose open space, they choose sporting fields and passive recreation areas over added congestion and inappropriate development. Yes, we understand that as population grows affordable housing opportunities need to become available, but this should not be achieved at the cost of community spaces. There needs to be a balance, and the state government’s current plan simply does not meet that benchmark. Planning amendment C159 claims that 11 per cent of this land will be saved for community use, which includes footpaths. There will be no room to play kick to kick, no room to play backyard cricket, no room for a children’s playground or for a multipurpose sports field. Frankly, no room to swing a cat. Sporting groups are asking for more sporting fields in order to cope with the increasing demands of players—where are their needs included? Families are asking for more playgrounds, for barbecue areas, for dog parks—where are their needs included? Environmental groups are asking for more open spaces and for trees of significance to be preserved—where are their needs included? These community members pay their taxes. They pay their rates. They are the soul of our suburbs, and there is no-one who can better plan and design a use for this land than them. Instead of ignoring their ideas and refusing a contest of ideas, the planning minister would do well to sit down with these residents and hear them out. He may even be inspired, as I have been. The Andrews Labor government’s plan to sell this publicly owned land for private development is a decision taken in just a moment of time by ministers and bureaucrats far removed from the reality of our community. But the effect of this decision will affect our community forever. It is in that spirit, a spirit of cooperation and a spirit of pleading, that I renew my request for the planning minister to meet with local residents and hear from them directly. BOX HILL TRANSPORT INTERCHANGE Mr HAMER (Box Hill) (17:21): (842) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Transport Infrastructure, who I am very pleased to see in the chamber this evening. The action that I seek is for the minister to visit the Box Hill electorate and in particular the Box Hill transport interchange to observe firsthand the current demand on public transport infrastructure in Box Hill and understand the impact that the Suburban Rail Loop will have on Box Hill as a metropolitan activity centre. The Suburban Rail Loop will be the biggest transport investment ever undertaken in Victoria. It is a state-changing project that will link our suburbs, our major health and education precincts, and Melbourne Airport as well as change the way that we use public transport. I was proud to be there when it was announced, and I know Box Hill locals are excited to see this project get underway. The project will take thousands of passengers off existing rail lines and 200 000 cars off our major roads. It is anticipated that the project will create more than 20 000 jobs during construction. During the election campaign the Andrews government committed $300 million towards the planning and development of a business case for stage 1 of the Suburban Rail Loop, with this election commitment being funded in the 2019–20 state budget. I was very pleased to see that just last week the Premier and the Minister for Transport Infrastructure announced the commencement of the registration of interest process for the Suburban Rail Loop. The registration of interest process is the next step towards making this project a reality, opening the search to find local and global firms with the experience and capability to help deliver the Suburban Rail Loop. RESPONSES Ms ALLAN (Bendigo East—Leader of the House, Minister for Transport Infrastructure) (17:23): Speaker, before I respond to honourable members’ adjournment matters, I would like to at the conclusion of this session of Parliament wish you, the staff and colleagues all the very best for a restful and safe winter period, and I look forward to the return to combat in mid-August, particularly with the father of the house. Mr Wells interjected. ADJOURNMENT 2462 Legislative Assembly Thursday, 20 June 2019

Ms ALLAN: You provoked it. Speaker, I am very pleased to respond to the matter raised by the member for Box Hill. It has been terrific to work with the member for Box Hill over the past six months in his role as the member for Box Hill and of course as someone who comes to this place with considerable depth and experience in the transport policy area and who brings his engineering skills to the Parliament. I would be delighted to take the opportunity to visit the Box Hill interchange with the member for Box Hill. I will say that it will not be the first time that I have been to the Box Hill interchange; I have been there on previous occasions. But I would be pleased to go there again with the member for Box Hill because this is going to be a very important part of the delivery of the Suburban Rail Loop. Indeed I think there is lots we can learn from what is already underway at Box Hill to support the policy work on the Suburban Rail Loop, which is really going to transform our public transport network in Victoria. It is going to provide a huge amount of additional capacity on the network. It is going to support people getting to where they want to go. It is going to create jobs through the construction phase and also, importantly, support people with better connections to job centres like Box Hill, like the very busy Monash University area, like the Clayton health precinct. I would be delighted to wander around the Box Hill interchange and have a very focused conversation. Mr Wells interjected. Ms ALLAN: You did not invite me. If you want to invite me, I will happily come. I will not come uninvited, though. Whilst we are in Box Hill, I am sure the member will also want to take the opportunity to talk about the removal of the two level crossings at Surrey Hills and Mont Albert, which is an important part of improving transport connections in the Box Hill community. Another nine members raised matters for various ministers, and I will be delighted to refer those matters to those ministers for their action and response. The SPEAKER: Thank you. The house is now adjourned. House adjourned 5.26 p.m. until Tuesday, 13 August.